Ezra Pound: Found Poem
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Ezra Pound was an American Modernist (He was also instrumental in developing the Imagist movement.) poet who lived from October 1882 to November 1972. He spent much of his time in England penning many classical poems including In a Station at the Metro, along with many many Cantos.
While he did do many longer pieces, he was best known for his spare and very specific poems, using concrete details and very few adjectives. An example of this is Metro which, in it's first draft was thirty lines long. The final draft is the famous two line poem, which uses very strong and specific details to show what Pound saw when he was exiting a train. He is one of my favorite poems, and also one of the coolest looking.
What follow is a tribute to Pound. Instead of using my words, I chose to use words from Pound's own work and turn them into a poem. It is from an article by Ezra Pound wrote on the use of imagery in poems. It's a fun and visual way to present what he was trying to teach in his essay.
Enjoy!
(To learn more about found poems, click here.)
EZRA POUND
"Go in fear
of abstractions. Do not retell
in mediocre verse
what has already been done
in good prose. Don’t think any intelligent
person
is going to be deceived when you try
to shirk
all the difficulties of the unspeakably difficult
art
of good prose
by chopping
your
composition
into
line lengths."
From “A Few Don’t’s”
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Good "find" alright!
Thanks, Coolmon. I'm pleased that you ennjoyed this!
Nice article on Ezra Pound, enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Jhamann. Him, WCW and Frost have been in my favorite rotation of late. Frost's "Out Out" blows my mind
Ezra is the poet I keep close to my heart, he was the first poet I read that started to ignite the "how does he do this.." fire. Then I read T.S. Eliot, WCW, and started gulping it up by the bookful. Thank you for this awesome piece on a poet I love. Jamie
Thanks Kelly! I'm glad you enjoyed this!
Very interesting! I really liked the way you educated us and shared a favorite!
Thanks Raci!
Teylina, I haven't a clue. I'm glad you enjoyed this though. I have a hub on William Carlos Williams coming out later today!
it's great that you have paid tribute to a poetry icon Justin...
Remind me: what's the opposite of literature (incl'g poetry?} Makes me think of something Pound wrote, but then I come up w/Oscar Wilde. Doesn't matter. The Pound poem is perfect, and I'm glad you shared it Thanks.
Michael, do yourself an immediate favor and refresh your memory. go to poetryfoundation.orgn(or maybe .com)
DrTruthman, it is certainly an honor to have my writing take you back to your college days! I'm glad you enjoyed this and I'm glad you enjoyed my poetry.
you're very welcome, Sue!
Good work Justin, Pound is one of those guys that pops up in my memory but I cannot remember any of his work. I will check him out thanks and SHARING.
Wow PDX, I thought for a moment I was in Dr. Worthington's American lit class back in college. Quite good and ingenious. As Audrey said so well, you have made us realize how difficult writing GOOD poetry can be and one reason I rarely turn my hand to it; although it is fun. Great job and I voted UP all across.
Thanks PDX! I really appreciate your feedback. :)
I just click "share with followers" if I'm sharing it on hubpages
Sue, I really like that. Good work!
Tried again but no go. How do you do yours?
Hi PDX
Well done. Voted up and awesome.
I have never tried a found poem. Here goes.
"Use
No superflous word
No adjective
Which
Does not reveal
Something"
Alastar... I've heard of Burroughs doing that. Seems like a fun, almost stream of consciousness way of writing. Thanks for sharing. Not sure why it didn't show in your feed.You could always share again :-)
No problem, Martie. I hope you enjoy him!
Quite interesting and well done Justin. Pound pops up all the time in my reading material. William Burroughs invented something where you take different pieces of text, mix them up, and then randomly pick lines for a poem or whatever. Can't remember what its called. Anyway I tried to share one of your hubs but it didn't show on my feed. What I do wrong?
Thanks, PDX, for introducing me to Ezra Pound.
Thanks Hawkesdream. That's the fun of Found poems. You should give them a shot, if you haven't...
I enjoyed this. I love the way you transformed an article to poetry, without losing the original essence.
tireless... how does it elude you? That's actually a very poetic statement! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Jen, he's a great one to start with. better then that windbag Shakespeare (said with no sarcasm). Thanks for enjoying this and for writing and commenting!
Thanks, Gypsy... and I haven't forgotten about your e mail. I promise!
Writing poetry eludes me, though I like reading it. Nice hub.
I have never heard of Ezra, yet I am only a mere novice in learning about poets. This found poem has sparked quite an interest to learn more about him and your tribute of sorts, is by far one of my favorites you have written, Awesome.
Voted up and awesome! Well done, creative and wonderful tribute to Ezra Pound.
Thanks Aurelio. I hope he would be! That would be a terrifi compliment!
echoe... we get better by doing, mimicking and revising. There's value and quality in everything, but if your work is not getting better, then you need to evaluate your process. Who better to mimic then Ezra Pound? Check out my other writing tips if you're interested!
Thanks, John. He was a terrific poet and his view of the world was very interesting.
Truly, Geena, if poetry were easy then everyone would be getting published. I don't know about you, but my rejection file si bigger then my acceptance pile :=)
Thanks so much, Sooner!
Thanks Teacher... and me too
Thanks Tammy. When I read that paragraph, it just sounded poetic... so i made it a poem :-)
Thanks Audrey. Sometimes HubPages knows what they're doing, though i did ask for a manual review, based on the subject matter.
Nice and unusual. I'm sure Mr. Pound would be pleased at your tribute. Voting this Up and Interesting.
Excellent work, definitely makes me rethink what I've done and just how much quality there is in it.
Awesome PDXKaraokeGuy. Pound is one of the great intellectuals of the 20th Century and you did him justice.
Voted up and take care
John
I am a long-time fan of Ezra, and I also agree with Audrey Howitt; this gives us a peek into how challenging writing good poetry can be. It begins with honesty. Very intersting hub...well done! :-)
I like this poem!
Great poem! And I love Ezra Pound!
A great tribute and great points about composition and line endings. I think EP would give you a big thumbs up! Well done!
And so they did and so you did! Nice write Justin!
audrey and pickles, thanks very much. hubpages made me revise this so please reread it with the additional information :-)
Superb!Very enjoyable. vote up
Makes us realize how difficult writing good poetry can be--
PDXKaraokeGuy Hub Author 9 days ago
thanks so much, xstatic. i was pleased to find it and i had to turn it into a poem :-)