Ezra Pound, Whitman, And Crudity - 1081 Words

Pound, Whitman, and Crudity Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island but moved to live in New Jersey where he spent most of his life. He was known as an American poet and journalist. He expressed himself in poetry by describing his life and American lives as a poem. His first published poem was Leaves of Grass in 1855, which later became known as Song of Myself. Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in Venice Italy, 1972. He was an American poet that criticized other poems and worked with other novelist and poets to help shape their work. Pound wrote an essay explaining his thoughts and opinions on Whitman’s poem. Pound believed that Whitman was a writer who developed a new style of writing. He describes Whitman as a writer who was not†¦show more content†¦To Pound even though Whitman used crudity to describe America, he did an excellent job in accomplishing what he wanted the people to read what the reality was in America. Pound thinks of Whitman’s poem as crude and unrefined in â€Å"Song of myself†. In section 36 it states: Near by the corpse of the child that served in the cabin, The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curl’d whiskers, The flames spite of all that can be done flickering aloft and below, The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty, Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves, dabs of flesh upon the mast and spars. (Whitman 933-938) These lines are crude because it describes crudity in the form of using death by talking about the dead cabin boy and the stack of lifeless bodies. I agree with pound opinion about the lines being crude because these lines described way too much graphics for the readers. Whitman wanted the people to know about the graphic details that were going on during the Civil war. Whitman’s feeling toward the war was very strong. He use to attend as a nurse during the war, volunteering to care for the thousands of severely wounded and sick soldiers. Whitman has seen many deaths during this time so he paints an image showing the terrible scene that lies before him to get the readers to see the reality of what is going on during that timeShow MoreRelatedEzra Pound1292 Words   |  6 PagesNathan Hubschman Nathan Hubschman Ezra Pound Response: â€Å"The Tree† by Ezra Pound is about how Pound identifies with the tree-like state in which the nymph, Daphne, of Greek myth finds herself in order to escape Apollo. Pound begins the poem explaining how he was a â€Å"tree amid the wood† meaning a changed being amid a familiar yet under-perceived environment. He likens this form to the myth of Apollo who chases Daphne until she asks the god, Peneus, to change her into a tree. Even though she is