Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE LINGSTICA Y LITERATURA
Profesor Gua:
Sra. Andrea Campaa
Mg. En Literatura
Santiago Chile
2011
Profesor Gua:
Sra. Andrea Campaa
Mg. En Literatura
Santiago Chile
2011
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to all of those who supported me in any
respect during the realization of this project, especially to our guide teacher,
Andrea Campaa, for her significant guidance through all these years; to my
thesis partner and friend, Oscar Salgado, for making this investigation possible;
and to my parents, Rosa Cepeda and Mateo Hormazbal, for the freedom they
have always given me.
Miguel Hormazbal
First and foremost, I would like to thank all the people who have helped and
supported me during the realization of this investigation. Im deeply grateful for
the guidence of Ms. Andrea Campaa and the incredible work of my friend and
thesis-partner, Miguel Hormazabal; without them, this crazy literary idea I had
once wouldnt have seen the light. Additionally, I would like to express my
gratitude to Mr. Manuel Santibaez and Ms. Connie Colwell for their support. I,
also, thank my friends William Baker and Gwen De La Kethulle for sharing with
me their unlimited love for arts. Finally, I would like to acknowledge and extend
my wholehearted gratitude to my parents, M. Angelica Flores and Oscar
Salgado, for leading me on the arduous path that is life and supporting me
during the whole process of this investigation.
Oscar Salgado
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement
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Table of Contents
Abstract
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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2.1. Aesthetics
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3.2.6. N.Y.
3.2.6.1. Diction and Imagery
3.2.7. A Girl
3.2.7.1. Diction and Imagery
3.2.8. Phasellus Ille
3.2.8.1. Diction and Imagery
3.2.9. An Object
3.2.9.1. Diction and Imagery
3.2.10. Quies
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4.2. Diction
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4.3. Imagery
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Chapter 5: Conclusions
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Works Consulted
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Works Cited
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Abstract
This thesis presents a study of two important poetical works of the 20th
century: Altazor of the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro and Ripostes of the
American poet Ezra Pound. Its objective is to compare both poets by taking as a
central element the use of language of the authors in terms of diction and
imagery. This analysis looks to establish the individual aesthetic visions of these
two fine poets, as well as to discover their similarities and diferences, explaining
why these works were so influent in generations thereafter.
Chapter 1: Introduction
It is undeniable for any person to feel, at least in one moment of their
fallible lives, an intense, overwhelming, truly unexplainable desire of expressing
the most profound thoughts and feelings of their human condition. This complex
situation may be translated into what so many thinkers have understood
throughout history, as an internal, intrinsic human call: maybe, a call to reflect
experience, a call to reflect inner struggles or a call to reflect beauty. No matter
what the genuine significance of this calling might be, it is certain that it is an
essential necessity deeply rooted in our hominal constitution a driving force
that is constantly aiming for a way to be released.
Diverse modes of expression have been born from this abstruse and
eruptive need: forms such as music and its heavenly sound; painting and its
magnificent intensity; photography and its vivid depiction; film and its fascinating
motion; or writing and its immortal charm. All these modes, and many others,
have been packed together into a friendly but, at the same time, vague linguistic
component we call art a short, yet tremendous term used to portray an
authentic substantial meaning.
It is among all these modes of expression, understood as exclusive
mediums essentially begotten from the depth of the human character, where we
find the sphere around which this analysis circumnavigates: the art of writing.
The written process is one of the most universally recognized and fundamental
vehicles of the never-ending human reflection. Subtle in its constitution, yet
carrier of a sole voice, poetry is a big part of this mesmerizing action and, since
the moment it came out of the living self, it has become a vital tool for the human
being reason why the ship of this investigation drops its anchor in the sea of
writing, and docks at poetrys apollonian harbour.
Let us appreciate, then, poetrys inherent complexity: from the core of its
expressive use of language to its stunning delivery of meaning, poetry may
articulate not only a message, but mostly, a state of uttermost sensibility which
enables us to reach a sublime sensation of beauty. It is this beauty that poets
have tried to convey in their experiences, observations and thoughts a beauty
that, no matter how much we may recognize, is still unexplainable and totally
enigmatic.
A fundamental question echoes in the inquiry room: what is beauty? No
explanation has ever satisfied all human souls, so an acceptable answer still
remains implausible. But why does this happen? Why is there no agreement on
this matter? One possible answer is that the idea of beauty may not be static
but, on the contrary, it may be in constant movement. Another probable
explanation may lie on the idea that not all humans experience sensations the
same way. Whatever answer there may be, it is clear that there is no defined
pattern of understanding beauty universally.
Nevertheless, it could be said that poets do have a certain vision of
beauty, and it could also be said that there may be as many visions of beauty as
there are of men drawing letters on a blank page. We could go further and state
that, possibly, it is this perspective the one they attempt to express in their
writings. When poets write, they not only intend to communicate something, they
also take into account how and why that message needs to be expressed the
conjunction of all this is what we called an artists Aesthetic Vision1.
If we understand, in this context, that from each artist a unique vision is
able to be found, human logic will certainly denote the existence of perspectives
that are totally different from each other, as well as highlight the presence of
those that share similar characteristics. Furthermore, an artists vision, in broad
terms, may also approximate another artists perspective on a common
distinctive trace, creating worlds of different size, yet constructed under the
same galaxies that can affect the poetical universe. Few of these visions have
been, in fact, responsible for the initiation of paradigms that can transform
significantly the stream of poetry. The visions of the American Ezra Pound and
the Chilean Vicente Huidobro were examples of these. Both artists not only
produced critical essays about their views, but also were the authors and
creators of revolutionary and complex works of poetry. The uniqueness and
brilliance of both writers and their work are the main reasons for selecting them
as the core of this investigation.
But, what makes Pounds and Huidobros visions so important? Is there
something in common that may connect both of them? Can we establish
similarities between the two of them that might give us clues to answer these
and further questions? Even when establishing such connections is a difficult
task, especially if we consider that both poets originally wrote their oeuvre in
different languages, creating parallels among their work seems like an
interesting venture. It is precisely this eagerness for poetic knowledge, the one
that motivates us to carry out an analysis in this direction. For this, two of their
most recognized and representative works have been selected and carefully
studied: Altazor in the case of Vicente Huidobro and Ripostes in the case of
Ezra Pound.
This research satisfies two different aims: one exclusively investigative
and the other one strictly personal. The first corresponds to a comparative study
focused on the use of language of these two powerful poetic creations that could
determine elemental connections between the authors, and the second to a
fulfilment of our significant interest in carrying out an analysis that could put
together two artists that come from different contexts and linguistic backgrounds.
Considering what has been stated, we postulate that substantial
similarities between the Aesthetic Visions of Vicente Huidobros Altazor and
Ezra Pounds Ripostes can be established. The objectives for this work of
investigation have been set as follows:
To present a definition of Aesthetic Vision of the Poet based on Paul
Valrys ideas.
To identify the elements that constitute the Aesthetic Vision of an author
in a written work.
To describe the Aesthetic Visions of both poets in the works selected
crucial question, innate to any person with a minimal thirst for knowledge, arises
from this situation: what is beauty? The problems in finding a satisfactory
answer for this enigmatic construct begin when taking into account the incredible
depth of this concept which has generated a great number of positions regarding
its significance throughout history. Discussions about the idea of Beauty date
from the exact moment in which men began to elaborate, in a methodical and
systematic manner, their thoughts. However different the conceptions of the
distinct paradigms may be, there is a notion that has always been present:
beauty is in tight connection with sensations, especially that of Pleasure. It is in
this junction where the prime problem of Aesthetics is unfolded: sensations and
ideas move around in completely different realms; while the first have to do with
what an individual feels, the others refer to what a person understands; while the
first flirt with the mysterious and the inexplicable, the second bloom with logic
and reason. There is a tight relation between these two dimensions, but when
put together in order to establish a universal truth, a battle of contradictions is
inevitable. To define the indefinable represents the inborn conflict of this area of
knowledge. How to explain, for instance, the pleasure produced by a specific
melody that makes hearts feel lifted up to a state of satisfaction? Why the
intensity of our breathing increases after we feel the strong wind stroking our
hair when watching the symmetrical perfection of a flower in the green fields of
an open grassland? What is that unknown part of our spirit that is stimulated
essence from which it is actually formed, for the author must take distance from
the subject being questioned, as he explains:
Ill strive to carry out a <very complete list> and a revision of
general character, as it is recommended in Descartes Discourse.
Ill stay outside of the building from which Aesthetic is being
elaborated and Ill observe what comes out from it. (Discurso 45)
By doing this, Valrys first conclusion on the matter gets a hold of metaphysical
knowledge through which he discovers the true fuel of Aesthetic existence. For
Valry, the essence of such concept is the result of an act of initial philosophical
curiosity which was progressively transformed into a speculative thinking of
highly complex problems (Discurso 47-48). The thinker seems to posses an
intuitive desire for initiating elaborated thoughts on some matter, a sort of natural
gift which requires the exaltation of the thinkers logical essence. It is in this act
of questioning, which involves the thinkers use of reason, where Valry
observes a deep connection between Aesthetics and the idea of Beauty.
2.1.2.1. The Idea of Beauty
Now that the notion of such mystic process has been presented, Valry
continues breaking the origins of Aesthetics down. After observing how the initial
curiosity of the philosopher pushes himself towards logic, he concludes that the
thinkers nature has conceived the main purpose of categorizing, rationally, any
phenomena. The thinkers and their dialectics will try to grant logic to the related
thing being questioned in the fields of an indescribable Beauty where the main
core of Aesthetic understanding appears, the principle of Pleasure:
There is a form of pleasure that is not explainable; which does not
circumscribe; which is not allocated in the organ of senses from
which it was born, neither in the realms of sensitivity; which differs
from nature, intensity, importance and consequence, according to
people, circumstances, time, culture, age and mediums; which
incites to actions without a universal validated cause, and is
ordered for uncertain purposes, to individuals randomly distributed
on a group of people; and those actions gender products of diverse
order whose value of use and change depend very little of what
they really are. (Discurso 65-66)
It is important to understand the fact that the concept of Pleasure that Valry
elucidates is not the one strictly attached to the pleasure generated by the libido
or any other physiological need. Even though this form of pleasure had been
normally assigned to the function of conservation of the species, conventionally
related to a reasonable finality (Valry, Discurso 48), it has not been the type
of pleasure that stimulates and requests all human abilities for its existence.
Valrys principle refers to this sort of Pleasure which presents itself more as a
phenomenon a state without a central purpose more than its own existence; a
sensation that could never be attached to any physiological convention. This
Pleasure does not have an end and provokes an exaltation of the senses,
challenging the intellect while equalizing matter, form, thought, action and
passion (Valry, Discurso 49). Pleasure is revealed to the creator in the
awaken desire of creating for the only purpose of it, as Valry will define: a
desire and its reward regenerating the one from the other (Discurso 49); a
loop in which Pleasure satisfies itself through its own creation.
When understanding Valrys concept of Pleasure is when we realize that
the rigor of a dogmatic Aesthetic does not only interfere with the idea of pure
Beauty, but also with the one of Pleasure; such orthodox conception of a single
truth dictates us an order of the incommunicable which is not possible. Pleasure
is being understood as equal for all humans, given the people who believe in
such idea the ability to determinate true from fake Pleasure (Valry, Discurso
60). This is what Valry would condemn, as already mentioned, on his view,
which gives us the notion of Aesthetics as being born of an incommunicable
Pleasure.
2.1.3. Valrys Poetic Notions
Even though there are many theoretical poetic figures that can be easily
presented and inextricably linked to Valrys conception of Aesthetic, it becomes
necessary to establish first the concepts from which the Aesthetic thinker
conceives the idea of Poetry: what is being understood as Poetry must be
presented with the main purpose of dissolving the thick mist which separates the
already-given terminologies to the meanings the poet has derived from his
artistry.
2.1.3.1. Valrys idea of Poetry
Humanities have always stood out as being the sole knowledge that
embraces subjectivity as its core, as its main constitution. As well as philosophy
and its Aesthetics, literary arts are a big part of such special attribution; a gene
from which Poetry has adopted a variety of definitions. Now that Valrys notion
of Aesthetics has been exposed for the purpose of getting to know his
philosophical perceptions, it becomes essential to scrutinize the appreciation he
has formed about the art he worked upon all his life: Poetry. Valry takes a
different path from those poets that are used to taking distance from definitions
of the elements that surround their own art (maybe as an act of their artistic spirit
that does not allow facts or certainties in their comprehension of life, or
maybe just as a manifestation of their own impossibility). On the contrary, the
French author does not hesitate to summarize Poetry as simply as it could get:
in Valrys own words, Poetry is nothing more than an art of language (Poetry
214). For many, such convention may not excite revolutionary changes in
history, but what follows those exact words defies the literary thought: Poetry is
an art of Language; certain combinations of words can produce an emotion that
others do not produce (Valry, Poetry 214). Such lines, under a simple view,
may reduce Poetry to a process of pure and effective selection of words: but we
must not mislead the authors intentions, for such reduction is a questionable
condensation of deeper thoughts: the tip of an immeasurable iceberg of
knowledge.
2.1.3.2. Practical Language and Poetic Language
According to Valry, Poetry is the art of language. But language is a
practical creation (Poetry 218), yet it is outside the practical world where
Valry finds that some traces of language seem to have a life of their own. To
elucidate this apparent contradiction, Valry identifies two types of Language:
Practical and Poetic; the first is a means to an end or purpose, whereas the
second is an end in itself. The objective of Practical Language is to convey a
meaning, to communicate something through a code. Once the message has
been received and comprehended, the code has no longer utility for it has
served its purpose the Language has cancelled itself by transforming into a
non-language (Valry, Poetry 219), a particular act, a reaction to what was
said. In Valrys words:
In other terms, in practical or abstract uses of language, the form
that is the physical, the concrete part, the very act of the speech
does not last; it does not outlive understanding; it dissolves in the
light: it has acted; it has done its work; it has brought
understanding; it has lived. (Poetry 219)
On the other hand, in the Poetic Language, the sensitive form acquires, by its
own effect, such an importance that imposes and makes itself respected, for it
situates the artist in a special state in which the laws are no longer working
under a practical order and in which nothing that may occur would be resolved,
finished or abolished by a specific act (Valry, Poetry 219). When this
happens, when the poetic universe is created, a desire of reproducing the code
is born inside the poet. It is in this type of Language where Poetry is relevant
and understood as such; it is in this universe, in this language within a
language (Valry, Poetry 218), where the verses are created.
These two types of Language, also referred as prose and poetry, inhabit
the same world and utilize the same code but the way they stimulate their
components is entirely dissimilar. Valry explains that prose and poetry use the
same words, the same syntax, the same forms, and the same sounds or tones,
but differently co-ordinated and differently aroused (Poetry 223). In prose the
discourse dies once the meaning is conveyed, for the code is totally replaced by
its sense. To say it in more precise terms, the substance of prose is content.
On the contrary, the code of the poem does not die after being expressed; just
as the phoenix that rises from its own ashes with renewed youth, the poem has
a special quality that creates a deep desire of reproducing it. There is something
in the combination of words and sounds that creates a special atmosphere that
goes beyond its significance. The substance of poetry then is not only content
but also form (Valry, Poetry 224).
elements for it to occur, and sets the arcane scenery where this wonderful world
takes place.
2.1.3.4. The Poetic Elements
The battlefield has been finally mapped, being its general surface entirely
analyzed. But in war it is not only essential to know the surroundings in which
the battle would take place; it also becomes indispensable to know all the forces
that would take part in it as well. In other words, a homogenous consideration is
needed after describing Valrys conception of Poetry, for different elements
need to be introduced in order to comprehend the verses existence and
development.
2.1.3.4.1. The Poetic State
So far, Valry has conceived an idea of Poetry that moves along many
peculiar concepts: different ideas of Language; differences between the practical
and the unpractical; and pendulums that oscillate between poetic ideas. Now
that a remarkable distinction has been drawn between the art of Language and
other concepts, it is time to understand how poetry is bred, how does it become
alive. Valry digs in the dirt of his own life seeking to encounter the essence of
such nature. It is in this reflective act where Valry finds himself as a Poet and
thinker, a duality of characters which composes one entity: his identity. These
two souls are different in the sense that both act distinctly, yet they are born
from one similar emotion. Such emotion is the point of encounter of both figures,
the deviation from that entirely unattached state which is superficially in accord
with exterior surroundings and which is the average state of our existence
(Valry, Poetry 214). This state of mind and emotion signifies the birth of his
artistry, the birth of the poetic essence from which words and feelings nurture.
Valry concludes
So I have observed in myself such states I would call Poetic,
because some of them have ended up in the form of poems. They
have been produced with no apparent cause, from any kind of
accident; they have developed according to their nature. . . .
(Poetry 213)
As explained, this Poetic State feeds from the accidental: it is born, in essence,
just like an incident. Without expectations, the Poetic State comes from a place
that crosses the boundaries of reality, of any artistic preparation. It can capture
poets standing off guard, asking for no specific time or place. When the poets
prepare themselves to embrace such sensation, decorating their temples and
standing at their entrance with welcoming arms, they are nothing more than
producing a piece of work that lacks poetic sensibility. By understanding this
difference, the Poetic State can be distinguished from what Valry infers as a
poetic production: the first being an unexplainable and unexpected intimate
modification, and the other being the fabrication of works (Valry, Poetry
217). At the same time, he remarks its unexpected and accidental essence.
Valry adds to this inborn and out-born incidental inspiration other important
simple fact that they have transformed the reader into the inspired
one. (Poetry 215)
The Poetic State manifests itself in the Poet who, lately, will transmit all the
sensations felt when creating the verse, being this the essential function of the
artist. The Poet must be aware of how this transformation takes place. For him
or her the transmission of such state is primordial, yet impossible in the practical
arena where the verse would never have all the Poetic States sensitive qualities
of the its unexplainable nature. In this respect, Valrys idea of a practical and a
sensational language is reborn and becomes necessary to understand and,
somehow, to demonstrate another main characteristic of the Poet: the versifier
becomes the arranger of the sensations felt, being his responsibility to capture
and organize the substance of the Poetic State through Language (Valry,
Poetry 217). The decisions about the articulation and selection of linguistic
terms are clearly the main contribution of the Poet, who is willing to transmit the
state through his or her artistry. Valry figures that the task of the poet is to give
us the sensation of intimate unity between words and mind (Poetry 225). This
strenuous operation, this rigorous work, oscillates from side to side in the poetic
pendulum, demanding the Poet to assume his or her position on nourishing the
artistic spirit. In order to dimension the real task of the Poet, it is important to
detach the functionality of the artist away from the logics of inspiration. This
rationale, for Valry, has just managed to conceive an image of a Poet who is
not capable of fluctuating among all human faculties. When attributing
inspiration to the artist, the oppressiveness of the term flashes: inspiration puts
the Poet just as a medium between a magic force and the work of art, not giving
priority to the Poets capacity of abstract thinking, the Poets capacity of
manipulation of such inspiration and how he or she presents it to others (Valry,
Poetry 227). This manipulation, which shrouds all the poetic and human
abilities, is what defines the Poet. The artist of the Language is the organizer,
manipulator and transmitter of the Poetic State that has expressed the infinite
sensations into finite terms (Valry, Primera Leccin 128), into acts, into his
work: the Poem.
2.1.3.4.3. The Poem
In Valrys notion of the work of art, there is room for two constitutions:
those whose existence can not be expressed in acts and those that have been
articulated (Valry, La Invencin Esttica 203). The authors definition of the
poetic work goes under the final description, yet vacillates between the two. In
Valrys own lines, a poem is really a kind of machine producing the poetic
state of mind by means of words (Poetry 228). In substance, the Poem is,
indeed, no more than the production of the Poet, but a production that has been
triggered by the unexplainable. What has been conceived in the Poem is no
more than the transmission of the Poetic State shaped by the Poet, which is no
longer the Poetic State itself. In a more functional and logical definition, it
becomes important to recognize the Poem as the action of the Poet after
experimenting the Poetic State: the Poem is the work of the spirit (Primera
Leccin 108), a piece of art that the spirit has produced for its own use through
all the mediums available in the Poets abilities.
2.1.3.4.4. The Poetic Process
Now that the poetic elements have been finally described, it is time to
proceed with the presentation of the Poetic Process: the way how all these
elements are connected. As Valry sketches, such process can be divided into
two parts:
So, on the one hand, we have the indefinable, on the other, an
action necessarily finite; on the one hand a state, in occasions just
one productive sensation of value and impulse, a state which
unique temper does not belong to any finite term of our experience;
on the other, the act, this is to say the essential determination, for
an act is a miraculous escape from the closed world of the possible
and an introduction to the universe of fact. (Primera Leccin 127)
The indefinable, then, is born in the Poets soul as the ignition of this process,
in which Beauty manifests itself through the Poetic State. The versifier reaches
the first part of this course of poetic actions in which an impulse is born within
the Poets artistic passion an impulse that seeks to express through Language
all the sensations felt. This sense of execution of an act leads the poet to the
second part of the Poetic Procedure: the transmission or the action. Once the
artist has felt the unexplainable, he or she moves onwards to a natural artistic
impulse of execution to condense the Poetic State into finite terms:
A voluntary action that comes to be adapted in the operations of
art to a state of the being which is in itself irreducible, to a finite
expression that does not belong to any localizable object, that can
be determined or achievable under systems of uniform and
determined acts. (Valry, Primera Leccin 127)
These acts that have reduced the irreducible into a finite expression
create a recognizable difference between the Poetic State and the Poetic
Creation. As Valry mentions, everything that can be defined distinguishes itself
immediately from the productive spirit and opposes to it (Valry, Primera
Leccin 116). During this act, Pleasure appears as an important element: for
the Poet, constant satisfaction can be found not only in the Poetic State itself,
but also in the transmutation of inexpressible feelings. Language will be the
Poets main tool of execution, through which the Poem will be built up and
carefully treated, but the artist must deal with more than mere linguistic
components. In fact, as Valry explains, the artist realizes that the same
internal movement of production gives him, the impulse, the immediate exterior
aim and the mediums or technical devices (Primera Leccin 128) from which
he would finally transmit the state. The Poet finds himself in a constant dialect
among different elements and different realms. Valry continues
for existence in the individuality of the artists, modifying their perception of the
macrocosms that surrounds them. On the other hand, the Work of the Spirit
presents itself on the material world as the result of the Poetic Process, as the
consequence of the action made by the connector of these two dimensions: the
Poet. In the middle of all this amalgam of states and situations, of decisions and
actions, it is Language the element that appears as the instrument the Poet uses
to reflect and produce such exceptional exaltation of the senses. Yet, each Poet
coordinates the mentioned elements differently, being every process unique and
unrepeatable. But, what is that feature that gives each Poet his or her
characteristic identity? What is that individuality that defines the very essence of
Poetry that will be born out of all this chaos? That distinctive feature, that
defining individuality, will be introduced in this investigation under the concept of
Aesthetic Vision of the Poet. The Aesthetic Vision would be understood as what
the Poet considers to be the vital elements of the Language in terms of form and
content which reflect and produce the Poetic State. The result of this, structured
by the decisions made by the Poet during the Poetic Process, is the Poem, and
it is in that extraordinary product of human existence where the Aesthetic Vision
of the Poet is presented in its more comprehensible state. Through this idea,
then, it would be possible to perform an analysis focused on the elements that
represent the most distinctive characteristic of the Poets work and, therefore,
identify an important constituent of the Poets essence.
but it is in the analytic poetic field where this definition may not be presented as
accurate enough. R. S. Gwynn, Americas new formalist poet and anthologist,
delineates and illustrates a more meticulous description of imagery, supporting
its definition not only in the prescriptive and descriptive essence of poetic
analysis, but in the natural form of the language. For the author, it is in concrete
diction where imagery finds, logically, most of its ways: concrete words denote
that which can be perceived by the senses, and the vividness of a poems
language resides primarily in the way it uses imagery, sensory details denoting
specific physical experiences (Gwynn 16). It is important here not to assume
that imagery, then, is just the mere use of concrete diction. As already defined,
imagerys essence is connected to the awakening of sensorial experiences, and
the use of both abstract and concrete words may encounter and produce such.
So, consequently to what has been repeatedly mentioned, imagery is divided
the same way senses are, prevailing six main forms of it: tactile imagery, being
the words or expressions that stimulate tactition; auditory imagery, the one that
excites sounds perception; olfactory imagery, which includes smell as its focus;
gustatory imagery, being the taste the central poetic stimulator; kinetic imagery,
concerning movement or motion; and finally, visual imagery, the one that
predominates in poems (Gwynn 16) and that is connected to the images, the
mental visual representation of poetic inferring.
All these forms of imagery are absolutely significant for the aims of this
investigation, for the artists word selection and use of imagery is in tight relation
with the stimulation of the senses needed in the comprehension of the Aesthetic
Vision of the poets.
arrangement and selection of diction arises as our most valuable tool since it is
strictly related to all the aspects concerning the content of a poem: significant
values, images, ideas, excitements of feelings and memory, and virtual
impulses.
The chapter is divided into two sections: the first one dedicated to the
analysis of Altazor and the second to the analysis of Ripostes. The analysis of
Altazor is constituted by eight sections, one for the preface and one for each of
the cantos. The analysis of Ripostes consists of twenty four sections, one for
each poem of the book (The Seafarer, Dieu! Quil La Fait and The Complete
Poetical Works Of T. E. Hulme are not included since they are not of Pounds
authorship).
3.1. Vicente Huidobros Altazor
3.1.1. Preface
The preface begins with an unorthodox description of the main speaker
that immediately transports the reader to the puzzling atmosphere of this epic
poem: I was born at the age of 33, on the day Christ died: I was born at the
Equinox, under the hydrangeas and the aeroplanes in the heat (1)3. After a brief
description of his parents is made in the same tone, it can be easily inferred that
logical coherence is not the vehicle which carries the message of the story, and
that the poems principles of functioning go beyond the constraints of reason.
Within this atmosphere, the poem frees itself from the conventional, generating
hand, words that belong to the description and representation of modern life
elements, such as different types of human inventions and everyday-use
artificial devices. The scenery is set in an ambiguous place surrounded by all
these elements that Huidobro combines, without making differences among
them, as if they were constituents of the same realm: At around two that
afternoon, I met a charming aeroplane, full of fishscales and shells. It was
searching for some corner of the sky to take shelter from the rain (11). The
aeroplane full of fishscales and shells appears as a natural entity within the logic
of the poem, which forces the readers to carry out a transformation in their
expectations of reasoning in order to follow Altazor in his journey. The artificial
entity is also given human attributes with no special treatment, reinforcing the
idea of the naturality of the hybridization of distinct elements, and therefore, the
indeterminateness of the poems atmosphere.
Another important aspect of the preface is the use of combinations of
words that do not relate under the rules of logical coherence. Sentences have
the quality of leading nowhere but the destination of its own construction. My
mother spoke like dawn, like blimps about to fall. Her hair was the color of a flag
and her eyes were full of far-off ships (6) or Ive never had a beard as white as
beautiful nurses and frozen streams (57) are verses in which Huidobro makes
arbitrary comparisons, joining words in a way that make no logical sense,
entering into the region of the incoherent. The verses open the paths of
interpretation and serve as independent branches in the story-line of the poem.
this section of the epic poem, Altazor appears as a reflective agitated character
whose introspection establishes a brief description of his travel, as well as a
depiction of his ideas on different subjects, such as Christianity and death.
Altazor am I / Altazor (82-83), the speaker claims, Altazor am I the double of
my self (123), he emphasizes before announcing the solitude of his free-fall:
Im alone
The distance that stretches from body to body
Is as great as that from soul to soul
Alone
Alone
Alone
Im alone standing at the tip of the slow-dying year . . . (134-140)
In the solitude of his canto, Altazor, breaks away from his fears and
preoccupations, exclaiming No Its enough (230) in the middle of his
meditation: a moment which gives the story line a turn. It is throughout his travel,
the perpetual falling over death (273), that Altazor describes his purpose,
depicting himself as the total man (357), the Antipoet (370). Altazor is willing
to set himself free from the inner limitations of language landmarks: A brutal
painful grammar walks through my brain (278). The speakers verbiage, then,
becomes exuberant as the poem slowly announces the birth of a tree, which is
the conclusion of the chapters story line.
thorns / Withers dripping its last stars (98-99). Not only the use of topic-related
terms is observable, but this choice of words is beautify with different concepts
related to nature. The idea of such modification is directly addressed by Altazor,
who expresses almost mystically: God molded in the shape of my distress
(157). This transmutation of poetic character that involves the selection of
nature-related words such as sky, stars, iceberg, pole, sea, torrents,
waves, moon (60-66), and others, are finally linked to Altazors conflicts,
invading almost entirely the first of the cantos. When Altazor refers to the topics
of War and Technology, such technique can be observed again:
Someday after my death
The world will seem small to everyone
Continents will be planted in the sea
Therell be islands in the skies
Therell be a great metal bridge around the earth
Like the rings constructed on Saturn . . . (464-469)
The nature-related essence of the words being employed is something relevant
in the understanding of the poems scenery, since diction is mostly presented on
a stellar atmosphere.
When analyzing the use of imagery in this canto, there is little presence of
other types of imagery that are not of a visual sensitive stimulus. Traces of
auditory sensations show up: Explode pessimist but explode in silence / How
the men a thousand years from now will laugh / Dog man you howl at your own
night (498-500), yet, again, the reproduction of these images is not entirely
concrete. Gustatory imagery sometimes, feels present within the selection of
words that could be easily related with the tastable", but that, again, activates
the visual reproduction:
Gardens of tomatoes and cabbages
public parks planted with fruit trees
Theres no meat to eat space is tight
And the machines killed the last animal
Fruit trees all along the roads . . . (475-479)
As a matter of fact, visual imagery presents itself predominant from beginning to
end. Illogical combination, once again, can be seen from time to time, The wind
drags its bitter flowers (189), yet images that are presented with a specific form
and that transform, subsequently, into something else are objects of constant
admiration. The lines Birdwatcher of dead lights that walk with ghost feet / With
the gentle feet of a stream / Carrying away clouds and changing the scene
(436-438) portray that the ability of Huidobros poetry to manipulate visual
imagery is admirable. As visible in the example, not only the image of
birdwatchers walking can be mentally reproduced, but also the immediate
photograph of clouds moving and changing the first visual construction is
discernable. Huidobro develops a unique style of presenting images which
ranges from the movement of them, and the combination of abstract
terminology, essential for the production of the visual poetic components of
Altazor. Im alone standing at the tip of the slow-dying year (140), here a
diffuse image is presented by the poet, yet, as diffused as it may be, can still be
constructed mentally. The reader can picture Altazor (although the image of
Altazor is an enigma) in the tip of an uncertain physical place, from where the
words slow-dying year break and leave the image incomplete and opened to
infinite possibilities of construction. This technique that provokes the image and
makes it partly abstract and partly concrete becomes one important element in
this cantos imagery.
3.1.3. Canto II
The second canto exposes the speakers sensitive qualities and breaks
the falling mood of the poetic atmosphere. Altazor finds himself with the femme,
the woman (1), who is the main subject of this canto. Lost in the desolate
seas (17) of the poetic world, the speaker is shown talking directly to the
feminine source of his inspiration, trying to dismantle the nature of her beauty by
asking Were you meant to be blind that God gave you those hands? (23)
repeatedly: Im asking again / Were you meant to be mute that God gave you
those eyes (85-86). This time, Altazors words are not concerned with the
descending motion of his adventure. On the contrary, the speakers movement
seems to pause, maybe falling but not in the same pace as before: Like a
feather falling from a birth in the night (24). Calm and determined to
contemplate the woman as she passes by in the distance, the canto ends with
Altazors final thought:
If you died
The stars despite their kindle lamps
Would lose their way
What would the universe become (167-170)
A conclusion that certainly redefines the importance of the woman as the cantos
main theme.
3.1.3.1. Diction and Imagery
The first line of this canto amazingly predicts the upcoming presentation
of femme-related concepts which covers the whole construction of the chapter:
Woman the world is furnished by your eyes (1), and so is the poetic
atmosphere furnished, decorated with a diction that resembles Altazors muse in
all terms. The selection of words, in this canto, serves as a description of the
woman that the speaker observes:
Wrapped in the memory of your maritime lips
In the memory of your delights your hair
Unpinned and shining like the mountain streams
Were you meant to be blind that God gave you those hands?
Im asking again
The arches of your brows are a bridge for the troops of your eyes
(20-25)
As Altazor sings, the womans lips, hair, hands, brows and eyes are being
described in his canticle, mixing such description with abstract terminologies that
provide a minimum sensation of concreteness. The use of words related to the
ideas of light and infinite also appears as central. Both diction related to
luminosity and infinite are mentioned emphasizing the womans relevance as a
preponderant element. This construction is also present from beginning to end:
Leaving you leave a star in your place / Your lights fade like a passing ship (56) or you are a lamp of flesh in the storm (119) are examples of such luminous
characteristics. In the case of eternity, the following lines evoke infinity in the
same way:
You bring doubt to time
And to the sky with intimations of infinity
Away from you everything is mortal
You fling affliction from earth humiliated by night
Only those who think of you taste eternity (44-48)
The use of illogical combination, which appears in previous cantos, is still
present: The adventure of the planet exploding into petals of dreams (61). In
addition, the nature-related terms used as a primary element for the production
of the first canto are also present in this second one, yet mixed along with
terminologies that describe the body of the speakers feminine inspiration
description that becomes the main theme of the entire chapter. This can be
observed during the final part of this canto, from which the selection of words is
also strictly related to the womans body-parts:
My glory in your eyes
Dressed in the elegance of your eyes inwardly shining
I sit in the most sensitive corner of your glance
In the static silence of your unblinking lashes
An omen comes from the depths of your eyes
And an ocean breeze ripples your irises
Nothing compares to that legend of seeds you leave behind
To that voice searching a dead star to bring back to life
Your voice creates an empire in space
And that hand reaching up as if it were hanging suns in the air
And that glance writing worlds in the infinite
And that head bending forward to listen to the murmur of eternity
And that foot that is a festival for the hobbled roads
And those eyelids where the lightning bolts of the aether run
aground
And that kiss that swells the bow of your lips
And that smile like a banner before your life
And that secret that moves the tides of your chest
Asleep in the shade of your breasts . . . (149-166)
In these final lines, the selection of words and the repetitiveness of their
appearance acts as a conjunction of all the points previously mentioned: the use
of diction related to lights, elements of infinite and the parts of the feminine
figure.
In terms of imagery, such repetitiveness becomes essential, for most of
the canto constantly evokes the images of light and the figure of a woman.
Visual imagery, then, continues to be the vital element of the poem, yet in the
following lines a new use of imagery is observable: The joy of watching you
listen / to that ray of light that runs to the bottom of the water (129-130). Such
lines demonstrate Huidobros unlimited ability to play with many literary
elements, providing a mix of two different types of imageries into one poetic
component, in this case the visual and the auditory. Also, the imagery presented
in this canto stands out for its mobility: the absence of diction that dictates the
rushing-falling motion of Altazor is contrasted with serene or slow-moving
pictures that are not interrupted by other dashing-mobile elements. Lines like
Alone like a feather falling from a bird in the night (18), The only planetary
system that does not wear down (105), The world on my shoulders grows light
(115) and Nor a mast begging for wind / Nor a blind aeroplane touching the
infinite (134-135) recall the tranquility of the mental images stimulated, being
these images important elements for the development of the mood of the canto
and its interpretation.
transition starts at the beginning of the canto when Altazor calls to Break the
loops of veins / The links of breath and chains (1-2) and to:
Cut all the links
Of river sea or mountain
Of spirit and memory
Of dying law and fever dreams . . . (19-22)
in order reach the new and special place where The flower will suck the bee
(27), The flock will guide its shepherd (37) and The tree will perch on the
turtledove / While clouds turn to stone (39-40). With this simple arrangement of
words, the habitual use of syntax is reformulated and the orthodox rules that
guide language gradually begin to be broken. Afterwards, the use of diction
becomes increasingly illogical as it is seen in the verse Astral gymnastic for the
numb tongues (131) this helps to create the foundations for Altazors new
poetry, which has as a central constituent the possibility of total freedom in the
poets use of language. In addition, similes appear all the way through this third
canto, involving the selection of the word like repetitively in its comparative
form. The construction of such comparisons, in terms of diction, puts a
contrastive emphasis on inversion, wordplay and the incoherent combination of
words: Plant glances like trees / Cage trees like birds / Water birds like
heliotropes (69-71). In these lines, the construction seems to posses a pattern,
a mechanism that seems to link a verb with a logical noun: plant trees, cage
birds or water heliotropes are actions of total logic. Yet, by interrupting this
logical relation with other nouns of a total unrelated nature (which is always
picked up from the noun of the previous line), the lines provoke a strange
linguistic effect: plant glances, cage trees or water birds are actions that lack
rational logic. By relating different terms with an inverted meaning, the word is
being separated from its functional purpose. The selection of such mechanism
and such terms and their repetitiveness becomes a useful tool for Altazors
presentation of the new language. Another element subtly emerges in order to
create this new atmosphere: the repetition of certain words in the same line
foreshadows the upcoming language revolution present in the following cantos
with verses like Enough sir violin sunk in a wave wave (105) and Then nothing
nothing (159).
3.1.5. Canto IV
Canto IV turns back, again, to the rushing movement of Altazors fall.
Theres no time to lose (1), Altazor explains, and so he does not let any
minute, neither second to escape from his poetical experimentation. While
repeating this throughout the poem chapter, he connects himself, once more,
with the world that surrounds him. The wordplay sparkles from time to time, like
seeking the construction of the new language. This can clearly be seen in lines
such as Treeye / Birdeye / Rivereye (58-60) or Look here swoops the
swooping swallow / Here swoops the whooping wallow / Here swoops the
weeping wellow (166-168) which interact with the reduction of extension,
creation of words and production of sounds. The main characters journey starts
and the new language that winks is his destination reason why there is the
constant feeling of hurry. At the end of this canto, the new language is
manifested:
The bird tralalee sings in the branches of my brain
For Ive found the key to the infiniternity
Round as the unimos and the cosverse
Oooheeoo ooheeoohee
Tralalee tralala
Aheeaah ahee ahee aaheeah ee ee (233-238)
3.1.5.1. Diction and Imagery
Once the linguistic transition has been made in the previous canto, the
fourth begins to fully put into practice the new rules of the new language. Now
that Altazor has broken all the roots that used to tie him to the doctrinal world of
letters, he is free to develop a new code with fresh words. The selection of
diction goes in this direction, using in a vivacious way wordplays to take the
charge out of words:
Travel the worlds and the wet crocodiles
Lend me woman your summer eyes
I lap splattered clouds as autumn follows the donkey cart
A rising periscope debates the modesty of winter
The words chosen are arranged to obtain an effect in which sounds are
musically evoked. The new language is finally reached, and its words can finally
be seen at the end of this chapter: Uiu uiui / Tralal tralal / Aia ai ai aaia i i
(338).
The atmosphere created by the choice of words is another interesting
aspect to analyze. Terms related to sea-travelling, birds and plants such as
shipwreck, nightingale (79), anchored, doves (85), waves (81), swallow
(83), poppy (85), seeds or wallflower (91), sap (93), flood the entire
chapter, but when it comes to the ones related to eyes, the canto presents a
new technique. When words focused on the eyes appear, the spirit of related
terms is used in a brand new way:
The geography of the eye I may state is most complex
........................
Marching down through the iris until they are lost
........................
The lion hunt in the jungles of secular eyelashes
The migrations of shivering birds to other retinas . . .
(37, 43, 45-46)
As seen here, the traditional fashion of terminologies is made more attractive by
how terminologies are being combined in this particular stanza. When the eyes
are exposed as part of geography, the words that follow immediately assume a
geographical function: the eye becomes a world where roads are irises, jungles
are made of eyelashes and migration is not done from one country to another,
but between retinas. This linguistic effect can also be seen in the lines The
vizier speaks to us in bird-language / Long long as a path / Caravans more over
his voice (225-227), where the language is a path where caravans pass not
over streets, but over words.
In terms of imagery, the visual type is still predominant, yet the defusing
form of the images in the previous cantos has now reached a level in which
abstraction is mostly conquering the whole of the mental photograph, making it
slowly disappear while the poet advances through the poem: the line I lap
splattered clouds as autumn follows the donkey cart (95) becomes a perfect
example of the abstract quality of such imagery. This, as previously seen, is not
related to how predominant abstract terminology may be in comparison to
concrete, but on how the terms are arranged and particularly mixed in form and
meaning. This also happens with the repetitiveness, the wordplay and the
introduction of new words: the entire new diction that Altazor is achieving in this
canto refuses to evoke the senses in a regular manner, mainly because its
language has a total different construction. Consequently, as Altazor reaches his
main goal, less imagery is understood and it becomes nearly impossible for the
reader to understand this whole new language.
3.1.6. Canto V
The canto starts with the verse Here begins the unexplored territory (1),
announcing that the creation of the new poetry has commenced. There is an
unpopulated space / That must be populated (10-11) says Altazor before the
lack of logical coherence among the verses creates an ambience of anarchy.
The absence of rules is not theoretical but practical. The habitual mechanisms of
language codes are displaced in this canto, which goes deeper in a cavern that
echoes verses which are novel in their semantic construction: The comet that
ought to have been born from a telescope and a hydrangea (118). The poem
reaches in this canto the point in which the game of language gets entirely under
way. Altazor feels the new language and becomes a whole with it. The final
verse reflects Altazors state of satisfaction for the creation of the new language
And I hear the dead laughing under the earth (636). The idea of death appears
again in this canto and serves as a reminder of the fact that Altazors falling is
approaching the end.
3.1.6.1. Diction and Imagery
In terms of diction, many of the concepts related to the sea, eyes and
geographical aspects that were exposed constantly in previous cantos reappear,
being dispersed all over the Chapter. The wordplay started in canto IV continues
to put emphasis in the creation of new vocabulary and the language liberation
from its constituent rules.
Crank it up
The faranmandole that manned a linn
With its musicoo with its musicall
The carabanbam
The carabanboom
The farandoleela
The Farandandoom
The Carabanbanity
The Carabanbansity
The farandnearina
The farandosea . . . (481-491)
Nevertheless, the wordplay undergoes a transition from the semantic,
grammatical and phonological revolution started in the previous canto and
continued here, with emphasis on the sounds the wordplay becomes now a
sound-play.
Now Im a rosebush speaking rose language
And I say
Go rose rosarosaray
Grow rose this day
Go rosary rose that rose away
Fireaway my rossible rositive rostrum strum . . . (515-520)
The repetition of words that appear in the fourth canto is now the main core of
this chapter. Altazor plays outside of time (114) with the language,
accompanied by the windmill (114) which will be the poets word of preference
in his poetic reiteration a term that will cover half of the canto structure once it
is presented:
We play outside of time
And the windmill plays along
Windmill station
Mill of inspiration
Mill of narration
Mill of determination
Mill of proliferation
Mill of embrocation
Mill of cultivation
Mill of vexation . . . (239-248)
The selective repetition of words becomes hypnotic, creating a loop of sounds
that, once again, seems to be the primary focus of Altazors attention. Once the
repetitiveness of such construction disappears, the construction I am takes its
place. Altazor seems to relate himself with all the constantly mentioned
elements of his poetry by using such construction in subsequent lines:
Im a firefly
........................
that can be pictured with total details but that continue to print heterogeneous
visions in the mind of the reader.
3.1.7. Canto VI
The penultimate chapter of the epic, canto VI, depicts the world created
by Altazor, as it compasses him. The poetic declarations of the main character
appear to be of a random type. At the same time, the extension of his thoughts
are reduced and dispersed, as delicately announced in previous cantos, now
covering from beginning to end the written piece:
A two three
four
Teardrop
my lamplight
and mollusk . . . (9-13)
Semantically immoral, Altazor urges, almost reaching the personal goal behind
the creation of a new language by breaking the meaning behind the words being
used: the canto, then, expresses nothing more than the ultimate mutation of
Altazors traditional language to its new form.
3.1.7.1. Diction and Imagery
Now that the charge has been taken out of the words through linguistic
decomposition and wordplay in cantos IV and V, the wings of freedom have
grown in the figure of Altazors new language which is ready to take flight across
the skies of ideas and sensations. This is how Altazors language suffers its last
deviation. This time, the diction of canto VI suffers from few new-word spasms in
comparison with other cantos. Just one intervention of the written form of this
new tongue can be observed in this canto: Swallowlin and mandotail /
Mandowind and gust of linn (156-157). Even in such brief intervention, the
regular form gust of linn appears as a reminder that the diction employed in
this particular part of the poem moves among the regularity of the word
appearance and not in the frequent exposition of new terminologies or of wordformation processes as in the previous canto. Yet, even though the terms
chosen are of a common type, the way they are being used implies the contrary.
When observing the relation of meaning between the words being united, the
selection of terms appears to be as one of a random type:
Cristalinity
Magnetism
silk you know
Wind flower
slow cloud slow . . . (23-27)
The diction of this canto is ordered in a way that the content appears to be not
connected semantically, lacking a relation between the meanings of the
concepts which seem to be independent from one another. Even though such
relation is not clear when examining meaning, the relation among words based
on sounds is totally recognizable. The words are combined based on their
phonological qualities, technique that has been progressively used by the poet
and that now takes a primary focus in the construction of this canto. The union
of words such as win, know, and slow, creates alliterations which echo the
constant sound of the consonant w when mixed with a vowel. Likewise, the
following lines focus on the repetition of some sounds:
Where
in where
Slowly slow
a wave a cave
Wave a wave slave if a slave
Beg for eyes
I have the nacre . . . (42-47)
The choices being made by the poet clearly suggest a special emphasis on the
sounding ey and the visual w when it comes to the word selection, yet, as seen,
they do not present any clear nexus in meaning. The objective of the journey is
accomplished in this canto and, as a consequence of this, the falling is coming
to its unavoidable end: Altazors death. The choices of gloomy terms, then, are
constantly employed, not in a regular or semantically-interlinked order, but within
the lines of repetition. The reiterative appearance of such concepts is central
and reflects the two motifs of this canto: the highest point in the development of
Altazors new language and the inescapable nearness of the end of this epic
effect that is produced by the repetition of words such as apotheosis (1),
jewel (15), crystal (22), silk (25) or nacre (48) in the case of the new
languages height, and the use of words such as teardrop (11), affliction (16)
or death (34) in the case of the culmination of Altazors travel. Consequently,
repetition becomes vital for the development of the canto, which works towards
the development of a free meaning open to infinite interpretations through the
absence of a logical order among the words and their meanings. Yet, the
incoherent arrangement in which such repetition occurs, gives no importance to
the logical order so necessary to shape imagery, which principally nurtures from
the meaning of words. The last line Crystal death (175) serves as the perfect
illustration of this cantos concept which joins the climax of the new language
and its dissolution in its own finish.
3.1.8. Canto VII
Now that Altazor has taken the structure out of the word, it is time for him
to decompose the word itself: the new language has finally been created. In this
final canto, the speaker breaks and transforms the grammar and semantics of
the language, and opens each word to the possibility of an infinite meaning.
Every word expresses nothing and everything at the same time: there is no
charge, no symbol, no pre-concept, no previous knowledge in this new
language, being the entire canto logically unintelligible. Altazor is consumed by
the power of his creation; he has finally reached the bottom of his upside-down
flight, burning himself through the atmosphere reached. Words are not the
same, only screams and yelling are now pronounced by the character who
slowly vanishes in its destruction ahee ah ee ahee ah ee ee ee ee oh eeah
(66). The magician, the poet has become a bird and has completed his life goal:
his own finale.
It might be that Altazor is consumed by the power of his creation, finally
reaching the bottom of his upside-down flight; burning himself through the
atmosphere reached. It might be that the final lines, ahee ah ee ahee ah ee ee
ee ee oh eeah (66) are the screams and yelling of the character who slowly
vanishes in its destruction. It might be that the magician, the poet has become
bird and has completed his life goal: his own finale. It might be because
everything can be when words are not the same, and language has become
everything.
3.1.8.1. Diction and Imagery
There are no recognizable words, there are no recognizable images; in
the last canto of Altazor, everything is up to the readers to create. In the
previous cantos it was Huidobro the one who created images and ideas in the
mind of the readers through the selection and arrangement of words and the
contents conveyed during Altazors falling journey. While doing this, Huidobro
subtly taught the readers how to elaborate those images, those ideas and those
contents on their own. But in the seventh canto, Huidobro reaches the point in
which he no longer produces words, or images, or content, he just combines
Lets take again the first two verses. When I behold how black, immortal ink /
Drips from my deathless pen ah, well-away! (1-2) says the poet using a
particular combination that mixes the abstract with the concrete in black,
immortal ink and deathless pen. The abstract effect of such powerful imagery
is concretized by the verb drips which links both elements creating a clear and
precise illustration that works as a useful tool for the contextualization of the
poetic situation. Yet, after such stimuli, the rest of the stanzas deal mostly with
abstract terminology, giving little room for detailed visualization. Just gather
may (8) and rain (10) appear as a reminder of diffused images that move
along terms such as spring weather(7), northwindish time (8) or wind (10),
terms that by themselves do not create images with precision.
3.2.2. In Exitum Cuiusdam
TIMES bitter flood! (1), the author recalls by quoting one of his longtime friends William Yeats, as a riposte or answer to the Irish poets work, The
Poet Pleads with his Friend for Old Friends:
Though you are in your shinning days,
Voices among the crowd
And new friends busy with your praise,
Be not unkind or proud,
But think about old friends the most:
Times bitter flood will rise,
bounds and the lack of them: here have kept, left behind and have out of
mind are expressions that set the mood of the poem a mood that revolves
mainly in the use of abstract terminologies, which somehow do not contribute to
the development of a one hundred percent clear imagery.
3.2.3. Apparuit
Pounds attempt at Sapphic form describes the effect of seeing the
transfiguration of a young girl (Ruthven 38). Even though the human figure of a
woman is never explicitly mentioned, this transformation is understood due to
the many references found in the text. References such as the allusion to a
Sapphic fragment in which Muses are said to inhabit in a golden house (Ruthven
39) allow the reader to get into this special state in which the adoration of a
woman can be understood as the main intention of the speaker. In addition to
this, the title Apparuit (Latin variation for to become visible or to appear as a
servant), alludes to Dantes description in the Vita Nuova of his first sight of
Beatrice, which in Rossetis version (311) reads as follows:
At that moment the animate spirit, which dwelleth in the lofty
chamber wither all the senses carry their perceptions, was filled
with wonder, and speaking more especially unto the spirit of the
eyes, said these words: Apparuit jam beatitudo vestra [Your
beatitude hath now been manifested unto you]. . . . I say that from
the time forward, Love quite governed my soul. . . .
a mysterious presence interrupts the painted image (1). The transitions are
unexpected and the movement is presented, at times, by the consecutive and
immediate change between the description of such images and the use of words
that represent a conceived movement. The second stanza shows the image of
roses that bend while the silhouette of the arcane presence afar moves (5-6).
The image changes its course immediately to a subsequent photogram, in the
third stanza, with the presentation of green fields that are opened with the
steely going, evoking the cut of a knife (10-11). The technique is strongly used
towards the last three stanzas, when a sense of rushing motion is added: the
silluete comes straight (14-15) towards the speaker to finally swift in
departing(20) as it is gone as wind(22) from its view.
The use of archaic terms is again present in words such as thee(2),
thou, afar(6) or aether(11). Also, archaic abstract tenses like drinkst(7),
hast(11), camest and dardst are used to establish another element of
interconnection with its ancient references.
3.2.4. The Tomb At Akr aar
The speaker or the soul, as he refers to himself in the first line, appears
as the central focus of this third poem. Moved not, nor ever answer my desire
(3), says the soul (or the ba, being one of the five forms of the soul in Egyptian
beliefs) to the dead body of Nikoptis, probably an Egypt emperor or an important
Egypt figure. The speaker is shown waiting for the body to awake, as the
Egyptian Book of the Dead would expect for every emperors soul to be moved
across the sky in the sun ark and be enlightened to become god, but no sun
comes to rest (25) and no light beats upon (27) the spirit that lonely waits.
3.2.4.1. Diction and Imagery
Archaisms are, again, an important part of the development of this poem,
in which the old 2nd singular nominative, objective and possessive forms (thou,
thee, thy) are used constantly by the speaker to refer to himself and the dead
quite body. The use of such old English, now poetic terminologies, is not only
restricted to pronouns: the noun millennia (2), the proper noun Nikoptis (1),
the verb shouldst (13), and even the selection of word order in expressions
such as lest (13) or came I in(24) set the mood of the old and rusty feeling of
the poem.
The Tomb At Ark aar presents clear visual imagery. The selection of
concrete terms, such as light limbs (4), saffron (5), light grass (6) and gold
(9), paints with orange-yellowish colours the first and second stanzas. The
lights, though, are turned off, during the final part, where expressions such as
no sun comes (25), jagged dark (26) and no light beats (27) appear to
stimulate such obscure images. The poets incredible use of concrete imagery
can be perceived in the following lines, where the image becomes alive and
extremely clear: Oh ! I could get me out, despite the marks / and all their crafty
work upon the door, / Out through the grass-green fields.(29-31) When it comes
to other types of imagery, tactile imagery is not left behind and becomes visible
in lines such as grassy tongues (7) or robes I have kept smooth on thee (14).
Likewise, auditory imagery appears alive by the end of the poem: after the soul
has admitted to be expecting the whimper (13) of the body to become vivid, the
anima finally reflects that No word, day after day. (28) is there to be listened to.
The absence of sound becomes vivid and wakes up, extraordinarily in the final
lines:
Out through the glass-green fields. . . .
.
main theme of the poem, as the poets title obviously shows. She is, though, not
a usual, ordinary woman, as her preferences do not seem to be near any
stereotype of the classical and romantic format of a female:
You have been second always. Tragical?
No. You preferred it to the usual thing:
One dull man, dulling and uxorious,
One average mindwith one thought less, each year. (7-10)
The portrait is not being produced in terms of the ladys physical appearance: on
the contrary, the description is based on her attitudes, the life she has lived, the
relationships she has established and the trophies (16) she has acquired. The
womans character is being decomposed by the poet in mental and physical
memories that appear throughout the poem in a listed manner:
Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things,
Strange spars of knowledge and dimmed
wares of price.
.................................................................
The tarnished, gaudy, wonderful old
work;
Idols and ambergris and rare inlays, (4-5, 22-23)
All these riches (24) of the ladys store (24) or life, are seen by the speaker
as nothing but deciduous things (25), memories of others, foreign elements
that would never have a real owner, yet that would define the femmes unique
character, as the final lines point out: No! There is nothing! In the whole and all,
/ Nothing thats quite your own. / Yet this is you (28-30)
3.2.5.1. Diction and Imagery
Even though the diction used for the title of the poem presents French
words, no other foreign linguistic components can be seen in the whole of it. The
portrait, on the contrary, uses mostly elements of English language to conform
the picture of the lady being described. The poem presents great linguistic
difference in relation to previous ones: whereas the use of archaisms and formal
language was essential in previous poems, in this one, language appears in a
regular, straightforward manner.
The oceanic atmosphere of the poem is immediately presented in the first
verse. From the very first line Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea (1), a
slight comparison between the image of the womans mind and the sea is being
exposed and, so, repetitively used throughout the poem. Many sea-related
terms are used, such as bright ships (3), floated up (12), fished up (16),
ambergris (23) and sea-hoard (25), giving the poem a feeling of paced
mobility, like if all its elements were resting on water in a slow float (27).
The mix of abstract and concrete terms is, once again, observable.
However, the arrangement does not allow the creation of any type of detail.
Imagery is mostly visual and really diffuse. The choice for words seems to point
directly to produce such effect in lines like And bright ships left you this or that
in fee: / Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things (3-4), where the use of this,
that, ideas or things are not fully descriptive. This happens through the
poem, and can be analyzed in the middle of the poem as the speaker describes:
Trophies fished up; some curious sugges
tion;
Fact that leads nowhere; and a tale for
two,
Pregnant with mandrakes, or with something else
That might prove useful and yet never
proves,
That never fits a corner or shows
Use,
Or finds its hour upon the loom of
days:
The tarnished, gaudy, wonderful old
work;
Idols and abergris and rare inlays (16-23)
This selection is decorated with expressions such as leads nowhere, with
something else or that might which gives the immediate sense that the
speaker is not focused on illustrating the many images that could convey the
appearance of listed objects, but on transmitting the ambiguous value of such
objects instead. The term oddments (4), as the author presents it at the very
beginning of the poem, is central for the understanding of the theme. This word
specifically describes the presence of a physical object to be observed, yet it
does not portray its qualities. For the poem the value of such is inexistent.
Instead of picking up terms of more detailed or concrete consistency such as
medal or cup, the author chooses to use trophies (16) as being descriptive of a
kind of souvenir of an achievement. The same happens with the rest of the
terms presented: instead of books, paintings or statues the speakers preference
goes hand by hand with terms such as wonderful old work, (22) idols or rare
inlays (23). Such selection of abstract terminology that evokes physical images,
yet no concrete details of such, seems to be directly related with the meaning of
the poem, for such objects do not have a real owner, yet they portray abstractly
not the physical attributes, but the character of the femme.
3.2.6. N.Y.
New York, the city that Pound visited several times during his neverunexciting artistic life, becomes the focus of attention of the poem entitled with
the acronym of the world-wide recognized urban center. The poem serves as a
reflection, as a medium in which the speaker connects himself directly to the city
in a spotless manner, even when reality appears to interfere against such link.
The first stanza depicts the city in an idealized fashion in which the speaker
addresses it as the beloved (1) one, and gently asks it to pay attention, to
attend (4) him Delicately upon the reed (4) remarking the natural essence of
the place. But reality strikes in the second stanza breaking the idealistic spirit of
the first one, and picturing the city as it actually is. The speaker realizes that the
beauty previously seen is not real, that the city is no maid (7), but just traffic
and crowds of surly people. Even when such dead and soulless representation
has been exposed, the speaker decides to go back to the place described in the
very first lines, giving it again, in the third stanza, life and soul through his
poetry. This last strophe seems to be a reconciliation of both extremes, the
synthesis of the ideal city and the real city: it shows neither perfection nor its
opposite as it is seen in the verse Thou art a maid with no breasts, (10) where
the pure image of a maid is shown imperfect. This arrangement is implicit in the
final lines in which the speaker states his intention by giving the city immortality:
Listen to me, attend me ! / And I will breathe into thee a soul, / And thou shalt
live for ever (12-14).
3.2.6.1. Diction and Imagery
There is a strong relation between the constant use of the first-person
and second-person personal pronouns in this poem. From the very beginning,
the use of the first-person singular possessive case personal pronoun, my,
becomes repetitive: My city, my beloved, my white ! (1). The third line, then,
surprises with the use of the first-person singular personal pronoun in both
subjective and objective case (I and me respectively), which is immediately
(2); the use of the expression Delicately upon the reed (4) adds a touch of
softness and an atmosphere of naturalness. The second stanza, on the other
hand, is characterized by one clear image of urban landscape found in the verse
For here are a million people surly with traffic; (6). This stanza also presents
the absence of the images described before: This is no maid. / Neither could I
play upon any reed if I had one. (7-8). Finally, the last stanza shows the mixture
of the images of the first and the second stanzas as a reflection of the
conciliation: the reed mentioned at the beginning is now shown as the
metalized silver reed element that gathers the characteristics of the natural
and pure city of the first stanza and the urban style of the second. For most part
of the poem, no other types of imagery apart from the visual are noticeable, and
even though auditory imagery appears to be evoked by the poets repetition of
the exclamation Listen!, the intention dies intact with no sound being heard.
3.2.7. A Girl
According to Ruthven (77) A Girl is a reference to the mythological
narrative poem Metamorphoses written by the Roman poet Ovid. The allusion
specifically refers to the story of Daphne and Phoebus from the first book of the
legendary poem, in which the nymph transforms into a tree in order to escape
from his chaser Phoebus (Apollo), who was fated by Cupids love-existing arrow.
The passage reads as follows:
Destroy the beauty that has injured me, or change the body that
destroys my life. Before her prayer was ended, torpor seized on all
her body, and a thin bark closed around her gentle bosom, and her
hair became as moving leaves; her arms were changed to waving
branches, and her active feet as clinging roots were fastened to the
ground her face was hidden with encircling leaves (Ovid, 525)
The poem is simply divided into two stanzas that present different
characteristics: whereas in the first stanza the woman describes in detail her
tree-transformation in first person, in the second one, it is an outsider speaker
the one who comments on the result of the process.
3.2.7.1. Diction and Imagery
A Girl stands out not just for the presence of two personae but also for
the use of a simple and clean language and the clarity of image. In the first
stanza, the poets word selection moves around tree-related terminology and
concepts that refer to the feminine figure, where words like sap (2), branches
(3) or moss(7) appear through the poem together with words such as hands
(1), arms (2) and breast (3). This sharp combination generates without
problems the apparition of an extremely complex image of metamorphosis.
Along with this technique, Pound produces an incredible sense of mobility by
using verbs and adverbs that describe a high level of motion which powerfully
stimulates the visual creation:
attention to the element being exposed. But then, such visual reference dies as
quickly as it was given life, when the speaker describes the object abstractly by
using words such as code(1) core(1) acquaintance(2) or affections(2) that
lack any physical resolution. Only one word can be recognized as concrete at
the end of the poem: reflection (4). Yet, the amount of abstraction used in the
whole of the poem does not allow the formulation of any sort of mirrored image,
pushing the reader to understand the word in its more philosophical essence.
3.2.10. Quies
This is another of our ancient loves (1) says the speaker as he formally
introduces the poem. A need for silence may be the object of Quies, as Rullus
is asked to walk quietly through the short extension of this literary work after the
ancient love, the lady that passed him by, has left a sensation of
incompleteness in his soul. Pass and be silent, Rullus, for the day / Hath lacked
a something since this lady passed; (2-3). A reflective disposition is created
with this calling, generating a state of silence and tranquillity. Another possible
interpretation is that the poem occurs in the roman tribune Rullus. This historical
interpretation would move us to the debate on agrarian laws, where the lady
(Lex or Julia laws) was passed in approval with a cynical silence from its
audience.
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
the day
Ha th lacked a s ome th ing s in c e thi s
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
lady pa ss ed ;
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
UU
marginal. (1-4)
Similarly to the major share of poems in this compilation, Quies presents the
use of the archaic word hath which helps to create an ancient-like ambience.
3.2.11. Echoes I
A passionate declaration of the carnal relation between two lovers is the
central theme of this poem which begins with the apparition of a speaker
(probably Guido Orlando, as Pounds reference tells) who seems focused on
embracing the Lady of Valours (1) attractiveness in his words. The poem
serves as a response to Sonnet XVI by Guido Cavalcanti, one of the many
sonnets and ballads which Pound translated during his youth. The poem reads,
as decoded by Ezra Pound from Cavalcantis original version:
THIS most lief lady, where doth Love display him
So full of valour and so vestured bright,
Bids thy heart "Out!" He goes and none gainsay him;
And he takes life with her in long delight.
Her cloister's guard is such that should you journey
To Ind you'd see each unicorn obey it;
Its armed might against thee in sweet tourney
Cruel riposteth, thou canst not withstay it.
Though she be surely in her valliancies
Such that she lacks not now worth's anything,
Still I believe her to be mortal creature;
Whence seems it, that (and here some foresight is)
If thou wert made aware of this, thou'ldst bring
Her to partake somewhat of some such nature.
Not only the re-utilization of few words as reference of the original poem can be
seen in this particular work, but the title of the collection itself seems to come
directly from it, as the phrase cruel riposteth stands out.
3.2.11.1. Diction and Imagery
The archaic word-use returns to enlighten the order and sound of the
writing. Archaisms of all type are used by the poet, which include the apparition
of old pronouns such as thine(1) or thou(4), the use of old-fashioned verb
tenses such as art(3), past (3) hath(15) or hast(19), and some poetic
words and expressions like befits (1), nay (5), refineth(12) or fairest (15). A
new pattern recognizable is the use of capital letters in abstract terms, technique
that creates the materialization and even personification of the words meaning:
the line that refers to the lover as being a Lady of Valour(2) may not only evoke
the braveness of her human character, but also denote, by the use of capital
letters, a place, a land from where the ladys empery(1) may take control.
Likewise, the lines Nay, by Loves pallor (5) and Is he whod gaze upon Truth
mazes (8-9) show how both abstract terminologies are being completely
personified.
In terms of imagery, the presence of a visual and kinetic provocation can
be felt in the line Past all disproving, where the verb can be interpreted in both
its concrete or abstract sense. Such moving image can also be pointed out in
the many deliberate references to the actions performed by the human eyes: the
lines Is he whod gaze upon / Truths mazes. (8-9) and This joy comes to me, /
To me observing (17-18) stimulate the eyes of the reader by using
terminologies that refer directly to some of the actions performed by such sense,
but that, after being mentioned, do not introduce any concrete objects to be
seen. Similarly, the use of few natural-related terms gives a certain amount of
visual stimuli to the mostly abstract-composed diction of the poem.
In the line As branch hath fairest flower / Where fruits suggested. (15-16) the
speaker proves such point, yet the flowers and fruits suggested become
obscured by the common appearance of a strong abstract diction, where words
such as Valour (2), love (6), Truth (9), joy (17) and power (18) dominate
the whole writing.
3.2.12. Echoes II
The second part of the section Echoes, also known as The Cloak, is a
Carpe Diem poem based on a couple of epigrams from the Greek Anthology
(Ruthven 51). The two-stanza-rhymed poem presents a speaker who calls and
invites its lover to consolidate the bonds through carnality before death comes
against it: Thinkst thou that the Death will kiss thee? (3). According to Ruthven
(51), the first stanza is a paraphrase of an antique epigram written by
Asclepiades in the 3rd century B.C. which reads as follows:
Thoug grudgest thy maidenhead? Wht avails it? When thou goest
to Hades thou shalt find none to love thee there. The joys of Love
are in the land of the living, but in Acheron, dear virgin, whe sall lie
dust and ashes.
Likewise, the second stanza is an adaptation of an epigram written by Julianus
in the 4th century B.C. Drink ere ye put on this garment of the dust (Ruthven
51). Prefer my cloak unto the cloak of dust (7) says the speaker passionately
as the poem finishes with a flame of burning desire.
3.2.12.1. Diction and Imagery
Not different from the previous poem, the second part of Echoes does not
change radically from its predecessor in its use of words. Archaic terms and
constructions are noticeable again: thou keepst (1), thinkst thou (3),
neath(8) and thou shouldst (9) illustrate this use. However, as similar as it
can be, the imagery evoked is not as ambiguous as in the first part.
Personification appears again with Death (3) and the Dark House (4)
performing human actions and evoking images of such. The repetitive use of the
word rose in the first stanza is also central in the creation of the poems
picture, as it has always represented a symbol of love and virginity. The double
reference to a cloak mixed with the abstract meanings of love and time adds
strength to this technique used by Pound in which he combines abstract and
concrete terms creating a peculiar image that produces both clarity and
diffuseness.
3.2.13. An Immorality
In this short lyric, Pound questions the ways of living under moral
conducts, using the title in a sarcastic tone while the speaker sings his (or her)
liberal experiences in the name of love and non-materialistic life. Despite the
moral standards of society, the speaker claims that in life Naught else is worth
the having. (2) apart from love and idleness.
3.2.13.1. Diction and Imagery
Sing we for love and idleness the speaker says in the first line, inviting
the audience to be part of his anthem a collection of words that have been
already used in previous poems, but that now serves a rhythmical purpose. The
selection of words, even though clearly picked and ordered to produce the beat
of the poetic melody, includes little of concrete diction which only appears in
words such as land(3), sweet(5) and rose-leaves (6). In the rest of the
poem, abstract terminologies are used with preference, so little of imagery is
evoked, being the image of the dying rose-leaves (6) the only exception.
3.2.14. Salve Pontifex
Based on the Eleusinian Mysteries celebration, the poem serves as a
hymn or canticle for the initiation of the Dionysiac cult: reason why Iacchus (an
epithet for Dionysus), being the god of wine and music, is related with the chants
for Persephones return, as the following lines suggest:
O High Priest of Iacchus,
song, (39), Of the magian wind that is voice of Persephone, (45) and
Wreathed with the glory of thy years of creating / Entalged music, / Breath! (5557) are the most obvious examples of this type of imagery in which the sounds
appear as a melody that elevates through the sacred fields of the gods
territories. However, the apparition of silence is also perceived in the lines Go
seaward silently, leaving thee sentinel (11) and Silent voices ministering to the
souls (33). This continual production of auditory stimuli is accompanied by the
presence of vibrant visual imagery which, through the creation of perfect
images, convey symbolic meanings:
For the lines of life lie under thy fingers,
And above the vari-coloured strands
Thine eyes look out unto the infinitude
Of the blue waves of heaven,
And even as Triplex Sisterhood
Thou fingerest the threads knowing neither
Cause nor the ending
High Priest of Iacchus
Drawst forth a multiplicity
Of strands, and, beholding
The colour thereof, raisest thy voice
Towards the sunset,
O High Priest of Iacchus ! (14-26)
This quote shows the clear and detailed symbolic image of Iacchus power,
depicted as fingers that control through strands the life of mortals. The poet
carefully constructs this image with a mixture of diction that perfectly combines
the proximity of words such as lines, strands, fingerest and threads with
the apparition of colors and sounds, enhancing the creation of a detailed picture.
Not only both the auditory and visual senses are being provoked at the very
beginning of the verses, but the sense of movement becomes essentially fired
up: Go seaward silently, leaving thee sentinel (11) says the speaker giving
priority to the motion from image to image, immediately after the summer-like
scenery has been constructed. Such flow works with the extension of the poem,
as it slowly goes from different landscapes and not in an abrupt manner as seen
in other works of this collection. The vari-coloured strands (15) are gently melt
skyward with the blue waves of heaven, (17), towards the sunset (25),
moving the sight of the reader from below to above. The many atmospheres are
presented by the poet one by one, to be, then, mixed with such mobility: the
leaves on sunlit days(4), the blue ways of heaven(17), the night and the
winds of night(32), the three shadowing / forests on hill slopes(36), the vineentangled ways of the forest(48) and the sapphire girdle of the sea(78)
describe the different settings of the poem as a whole which encircles the
verges(93) of the land and the sea the verges of darkness and clarity. This
change of scenery is also deeply rooted in the diction and the selective patterns
of the author which move not only in space but also in time as the poem goes
from day to night Now that the evening cometh upon thee (58). For this work,
the poet uses the concreteness of certain words to highlight not only the clear
images of the setting but also the theme of celebration from which the poem is
attached, in which words such as wine(10), tree-shadowing(35), futility(42),
vine-entangled(48), music(56), wicker baskets fro grape clusters(63) or
canticles(70) relate both elements perfectly, evoking in detail the ceremonial
vintage. This is how some archaic terms are used to invoke the classic soul of
such tradition; words and constructions do also assume ancestral ways:
O High Priest of Iacchus
Wreathed with the glory of thy years of
creating
Entagled music,
Breathe !
Now that the evening cometh upon thee. (54-58)
The words selected, the formation and the verbs employed are interweaved with
the many characters of this celebration: the Triplex Sisterhood (18), the
hamadryads (34), the maddests (40) and the Mnads (47) are part of the
pn which brings Persephone as released for the spring (80). The poem
ends remarkably with an image of Iacchus that, after being presented,
undergoes a metamorphic transformation: the god in the verge of the sea
passes from being sand to waves, which later become the air breathed by
himself:
similar conclusion: Pound here rejects the transient attractions of romantic love
in favor of something that is closer to harsh reality and therefore more likely to
be durable (62). It appears that only the awful has shown as eternal in the
speakers life, and the willing to change such notion presents itself alive in the
words of his speech.
3.2.15.1. Diction and Imagery
is a clear example of the combination of concrete diction that
creates undimmed images that dilute in the hazy complexity of abstract terms.
Concrete terminologies such as wind (2), flowers (4), sunless cliffs (6) and
grey waters (7) seem not to develop new imagery (for most of this had already
appeared in previous poems) and are infused with the abstractions of words like
Bleak wind (2), eternal moods (1), transient (3) and strong loneliness (5).
However, the words are arranged in such manner that the imageless
characteristic of abstract diction does not interfere with the creation of a defined
mental picture; instead, it adds a special quality and charge to the concepts, as
the gaiety decorates with a special mood the image of the flowers in this
written piece (4). This effect is strongly produced in the lines that follow where
the creation of an imagery of the visual type is perfectly constructed, not just
with the appearance of dark colors and geographical elements, but also with the
development of a specific sensation of solitude: Have me in the strong
loneliness / of sunless cliffs / And of grey waters. (5-7). In addition to visual
imagery, the auditory type can also be found in the line Let the gods speak
softly of us (8) in which a faint sound is educed.
To permeate the optimist moral of such work, the poet serves from the
use of anguish terminologies to produce a sense of melancholy around its lines:
the eternal moods (1) are compared to the bleak wind (2) implanting a feeling
of affliction from the very beginning of the poem. The touch of suffering eternity
is increased with the apparition of gods that speak of them, and Orcus, god of
the underworld in Roman mythology, who is counterpoise with the everlasting
memory of the speakers love in the last line of the poem.
3.2.16. The Needle
This is a carpe diem poem whose title refers to the compass needle of a
humans soul that trembles (3) in the sea of emotion in which the writing moves
from wave to wave. The first stanza of the poem places us in the speakers
physical situation: Come, or the stellar tide will slip away (1) says the speaker
to his lover while the poem travels around an astronomical sea in constant
movement. The second stanza acts as an argumentation of the qualities of the
stellar flux being observed, with the constant demands of the speaker who sees
that the good hour has come to embrace love: invitation that would end
metaphorically in the final stanza with the form of a final calling for a lustful
encounter.
Even though the abstract references seem to overcloud the images being
constructed by the display of such concrete words, the reader can still
appreciate roses and the goldish colour of the scenery. The second stanza
returns to the mixing process of both types of diction seen in previous poems as
a means of representation of the chaotic effects produced by being drown. The
setting of the poem is mainly moved by the use of sea-related diction. Pounds
ideogrammic method is introduced graphically to provoke such setting in the
third line of the second stanza: Pale slow green surgings of the underwave.
Here the combination of terms appears almost mathematically as the word
pale is added with the slow and green surgings giving us as a final result
the underwave. Such line also reflects another important characteristic of the
poem: an oceanic movement, which as Ruthven points out is a dominant motif in
art noveau (228). This motion appears predominant in this refined poem by
Pound, as it can be seen in the slow movement of the algae (6). The ordering
of diction simulates the sensation of being under the water which implies the
presence of tactile and kinetic imagery.
3.2.18. Plunge
As a reaction to the trivial routine and the superficiality of society,
Plunge represents Pounds necessity for new experiences, an ode to the new
(8), to the unknown: I would bathe myself in strangeness (1), I burn, I scald so
for the new, / New friends, new faces, / Places! (3-5), save the new. (8)
! (16-18) where the eagerness for this new, more vivid landscape is contrasted
with the murky misery of the wonted city. Such contraposition, and the
comparative form in which it is presented, denote an important use of movement
among both impressions; the speaker flows (14) far out (15) of the very first
images, separating himself from what has been neglected in the poem, to finally
become one with the absence of routine and therefore the presence of the new:
Out and alone, among some / Alien people !(19-20), the speaker appears to be
transformed by the power of its own words and actions.
3.2.19. A Virginal
A Virginal is a love poem that describes the inner battle of a person
enchanted and aroused by the reminiscence of a perfect lover. Beginning with a
phrase that repeats itself twice along the verses No, no ! Go from me, and
which suggest the possible rejection of a second lover or the rejection of carnal
sensations, A Virginal presents a speaker who rhythmically expresses his
feelings of desire for the lady that has fascinated and completely changed his
conceptions of love and romance. The title alludes to the antique musical
instrument, and gives its essential musicality to the poems heart, which beats in
the pulsing form of a romantic sonnet of an unusual rhyme scheme.
Contradictory to the classical structure of verses, the theme of the poem is
developed asymmetrically to the regularities of an idyllic sonnet: even though
there is not enough literary evidence to support whose chastity has been kept
intact, it is the speakers sexual state the one being sentimentally exposed in
metaphorical purity.
3.2.19.1. Diction and Imagery
Archaisms appear once again decorating the verses and giving them the
vintage feeling so characteristic of a sonnet, where words such as ther (5),
sheathe (8), birchen (10) and aye (11) contribute lively to the enchanting
ways of the composition. Though such amorous title conserves the idealization
of the harpsichord keyboard as the primary meaning of the noun virginal, it
clearly manifests traces of its adjective form when put into context. The theme of
the poem works constantly towards this sexual account, and the selection of
words becomes essential to prove it. Language focuses on accentuating erotic
sensations, giving priority to terms related to flesh and skin. Tactile and
gustatory senses are evoked in lines like slight are her arms(4), as with sweet
leaves (6), to sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her (8), I have
still the flavour (9) or as winters wound with her sleight hand (12) that act as
expressions of weight and taste, which are perfectly balanced with their
allegorical nature. All these erogenous expressions do not only move under
these two senses, since they are compared and often juxtaposed with the visual
stimuli of images. This is how the diction of the poem focuses on the evocation
of light and clearness choice that repeats again when the idea of the woman is
being described. Light-related terms are provided by the author in the first
stanza as the speaker is being covered by a broad shine:
I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,
For my surrounding air has a new lightness;
And left me cloaked as with a gauze of ther,
As with sweet leaves; as with a subtle clearness
The brightness of such lines becomes essential as a main reference for the
sexual purity evoked in the theme of the poem. The following stanza
emphasizes images different from the bright ones perceived in the first verses
and nature-related terms act with the purpose of constructing mental pictures:
Soft as spring wind thats come from birchen bowers,
Green come the shoots, aye April in the branches,
As winters wound with her sleight hand she staunches,
Hath of the tress a likeness of the savor:
A white their bark, so white this ladys hour.
The appearance of winter and the personification of April give colorful
characteristics to the many references to tree-akin terms shown along these
lines. Among the closing verses, two terms appear denoting all the
characteristics of the poems diction: tress (13) and bark (14) act as joining
the many references; for tress depicts the womans hair at the same time it
acts as a pun for tree; and the white bark, serves as the skin of the plant, and
metaphorically the bright sheath covering its construction.
overall sensation of the poem: the words death (9) and hollow (13) along with
the phrase There is no summer in the leaves, (4) set the dark mood of the
situation. The rest of the diction is arranged to arouse visual imagery that is
directly related to both of the main ideas in the poem. As the Greek god of wild
nature, the poem refers to some nature-related terminologies such as
summer(4), leaves (4), withered(5), sedges(5) and season(10); at the
same time, is mixed with some death-related words such as, pledge(7),
Death(9), taken (...) away(9), and hollow(10). The term Coronal (3), a
word that is repeated twice in the poem, summarizes both of these matters in its
meaning, being a floral pledge (7), a flower-decorated symbol for death which
reflects the dispirited feeling that Pans death provoked.
3.2.21. The Picture
As the note written by the artist himself refers to, the poetic work is based
on Jacopo de Sellaios painting: Venus Reclining. With his particular use of
language, Pound describes the woman on the painting by depicting a sensation
that recalls the one evoked in A Virginal maybe as an allusion to Venus,
goddess of love and beauty: For here was love, was not to be drowned out, /
And here desire, not to be kissed away (2-3). The first line of this ekphrasis,
The eyes of this dead lady speaks to me, which connects the painting with an
attentive and contemplative speaker, may be interpreted as Pounds reference
to a near encounter with what would become one of his more important
statements about the painter This man knew out the secrets ways of love, / No
man could paint such things who did not know. (1-2) evidencing Pounds
admiration for the visual artist. Venus Reclining, is once more referred to
among the lines of the poem, being the second stanza strictly connected with it.
And now shes gone, who was his Cyprian, / And you are here, who are The
Isles to me. (3-4) says the speaker in reference to the island of Cyprus, a place
where Venus was worshiped (Ruthven 186). The third stanza is, essentially, the
expression of the speakers main concern: And heres the thing that lasts the
whole thing out : / The eyes of this dead lady speak to me (5-6).
3.2.22.1. Diction and Imagery
Mainly abstract in its form, the Of Jacopo Del Sellaio moves among
terminologies that seem to define the poems principal characteristic: a strictly
non-visual piece of work. This quality gives the poem the connotation of being
the aesthetic counterpart of The Picture as the sensations that it evokes are
completely opposite. For instance, in the first verse the speaker does not
present any concrete figure but just the idea of the gifted man who is able to
paint the picture: This man knew out the secret ways of love. Here, the word
thing appears for the first time, and is repeated twice again in the last stanza
word selection that strengthen the notion of visual ambiguity.
diction moves around these fabric-related words which intensify the ideas of the
description of music as something as delicate as silk, giving priority to the
weaves-related images seen in the very first part of this poem now immersed in
a poetry that waves slowly: Breast high, floating and welling / Their soul,
moving beneath the satin, (1-2). Kinetic, then, is once more a primary element
in this poem, where verbs such as pushed (4), beat (5), dropped (7) or
floating above (15) are mixed with other words such as fluid (12), curled
(13) or wave (13) which, also, possess motion.
Altazor into English takes us further than the moon and stars, and falls not
back to earth but out into Einstein space, a place where speed is capable of
telescoping time (x-xi). Huidobros masterpiece flowers in subtle difference with
the narrative lyrical genre: though Epic poetry usually contains details of heroic
deeds and events significant to a culture or nation (Meyer), Altazor seems to
skip these regularities, being its heroic figure non-related to any specific culture
and, thus, extremely distant from oral tradition. Accordingly, the inclusion made
by the author of fixed schemes is almost scant, being free verse the main
foundation of the poetic work. These variances give Altazor an invigorating
freshness that impeccably combines with this epics biggest contribution to
poetry: the creation of a new poetic language a breakthrough that sees light in
the climax of Huidobros masterwork.
Due to the Aesthetics postulates presented across the extension of the
work that theoretically support this poetic and linguistic innovation, Altazor
represents a reaction against the precepts of the traditional and standardized
poetry of the time in terms of form and content. Through the lines of its seven
cantos, the piece of work flows within a particular ambience of ambivalence
between the plot-line of the epic journey and the discombobulated logical
coherence of its form. Even though the poem possesses a narrative, a line in
which the main character moves, which is essential to the authors poetical
purpose in the formation of the new language, the beautified complexity of each
forms of poetry, for even when using them Pound does it in an experimental
manner. By utilizing different techniques regarding form and content, Pound
introduces modifications and innovations that emphasize his personal style. With
that being said, it becomes reasonable to state that Ripostes portrays Pounds
Aesthetic transition that goes from his care for the traditional structures of poetry
towards a freer organization of verses characterized by a clean and direct use of
language. Not only that, it is a work that represents a turning point in Pounds
poetic oeuvre and the basis for establishing the Aesthetic Vision of Imagism.
The constant references arise as another important aspect of Ripostes
and give the work a special complexity when it comes to reading it. Allusions to
ancient culture, especially those that found his beliefs in pagan gods, along with
the citation of contemporary poets and the apparition of other fields of art such
as music and painting, extend the cloak of wisdom over the multicolored
collection. In this sense, previous knowledge emerges as fundamental for the
understanding of Ripostes, since each of the allusions helps to create a specific
state of mind or soul in the poems. The seeking for precision and specificity,
then, stands out as one of the main concerns of the poet in Ripostes, who tries
to reflect the Poetic State not only through clear and specific images but also
through accurate description of sensations. All these elements show an
essential angle of the Aesthetic Vision present in Ripostes: Pound tries to reflect
and produce the specific sensation of the Poetic State that lead him to create
each of the poems through precision and a clear emotional vision in an attempt
to define the indefinable. It is not chaos what can bee seen in the lines of
Ripostes, but meticulous organization and delicacy of forms and content.
4.2. Diction
4.2.1. Vicente Huidobros Altazor
When looking at the diction in Altazor, it becomes unavoidable to note the
balanced use of abstract and concrete terminologies that appears throughout
the epic work. Even though by the final cantos the author has managed to take
the meaning out of the words making sound and written patterns the only
recognizable structures of the written piece, most of the type of diction in the
poem is melted and mixed in concreteness and abstraction, being the poem
adjusted in a subtle harmonized structure of tangible and un-tangible
foundations.
The recurrent use of astral-related terminologies, which are not presented
in isolation, but regularly combined with other elements in Huidobros writing, is
one of the features that characterize the authors diction. Such stellar constituent
is substantial and is usually juxtaposed from beginning to end with the properties
of other natural-akin terms, especially those related to the sea and sky, as the
author paints winds and waves in his poetical galactic canvas. The first line of
the poem, actually, starts such relation, by making Altazor to be born at the
Equinox (Huidobro). This relevant reference becomes extremely important
when presented in the preface whose main purpose is to situate the reader in
the context of the whole poem. But this is not the only reference that proves that
these elements are essential for the context of the poetical story, as it appears in
canto I: And as long as the stars and the waves have something to say / It will
be through my voice that they speak to man (413-414). In these lines, the
arrangement of the words clearly specifies a hierarchy in which the elements are
being exposed: the stars and waves are presented only through the main
characters poetry, yet not as independent elements, as the example suggests.
Evidently, the expression it will be through my voice gives Altazor a sense of
dominion over what surrounds him, but most importantly, it gives the reader the
fundamental notion of what is around him. The authors intention through such
lines is clear, for his expression determines, essentially, the ambiance of
Altazors adventure: stars and waves. It is through the birth-relation established
and the control that the protagonist has over these elements, that the author
specifies the atmospheric and decorative features of such natural constituents,
clearly connecting Altazor with the galactic features that would become more
recurrent as the poem progresses, and which are now proved as being
primordial for the scenery or setting of the epic.
The decision for the use of such elements as the background of the story
works directly towards the authors poetical intention: the creation of a new
language. One common thing about the maritime, aerial and astral natural
spaces is how they assume some sort of uninhabited, empty characteristic, for
these zones do not seem entirely manipulated by men. Here Im lost in the
desolate seas / Alone like a feather falling from a bird in the night. (17-18) says
Altazor in canto II, exposing this valuable principle with the use of desolate
seas and the comparison of his swimming movement with the one of a feather
which visually floats without the dominion of gravity, but wind. This slightest
command regular men possess, gives Altazor a more heroic characteristic, as
he sees these areas as perfect arenas for the deletion and creation of the new
language, as it can be seen in canto III:
The last poet withers away
The bells of the continents chime
The moon dies with the night on its back
The sun pulls the day of its pocket
The solemn new land opens its eyes
And moves from earth to the stars
The burial of poetry (114-120)
The old poetry dies in the land, the habitat of man, and moves from it to the
stars as the burial procession is being held. In space, where no gravity is
controlling the position of things and where distances are no longer controlled,
the creation of a new language becomes easier to project for there no limitations
seem possible. This, by being juxtaposed with the management that men
posses over the ocean and earthly sky, gives the reader enough understanding
on how the author sees these elements in his Aesthetic nature. Some of the
nature-related terms, such as the ocean, the sky and the stellar tide, are treated
of the authors decision to attribute an entire chapter for such a theme and the
selection of words, that surround such image, would explain more about her
appearance.
The woman character, even though mainly exposed in the second canto,
is first presented by the poet during the preface in the form of a Virgin. The
selection of the terminologies that accompany the Virgins image clearly treats
its appearance in a mystical manner:
Grabbing my parachute, I leap from the edge of my speeding star
into the stratosphere of the last sigh.
I wheel endlessly over the cliffs of dreams, I wheel through clouds
of death.
I meet the Virgin, seated on the rose (...) (34-36)
Over mountains of dreams and clouds of death, the Virgin appears
seated on a rose as a mystical character surrounded by terminologies that
cover her image with a mist. This can also be seen as the Virgin later explains:
Look at my halo. It has a few cracks in it, a proof of my antiquity(38) The word
halo provides magic to the femme, a woman that still appears near to Altazor
in its voice and approach even in the superiority of her mystical and sublime
presence. Love me, my child, for I adore your poetry and I will teach you aerial
prowess (42). The way the Virgin is treated in the example demonstrates that
Huidobros manipulation of such symbolic character is not distant from the
regular literary convention: the way the female saint addresses Altazor,
combined with the petition of love, delivery and education, presents the Virgin as
the voice of experience and maternal love. As a proving point, and before she is
finally taken out of the story of Altazors story, the Virgin supports such
characteristic when pronouncing her final words: My glances are a wire on the
horizon where swallows rest (44). The combination of the words glance and
horizon gives the woman a characteristic of unexplored dimension which is
presented as an element of admiration and respect for the poet. This line
connects the female virginal image with the upcoming appearance of another
female counterpart who seems to function for Altazors travel as the distraction,
or rest of his continuous fall. Already understanding how diction has presented
us the importance of the stellar context in Altazors story, an immediate
connection can be made with the place to rest the Virgin named and the
presence of this unknown female character, who appears during canto II: Your
breath is my atmosphere / The incredible security of your glance with its intimate
constellations / With its own language of seed (78-80). The connection being
done in these lines expose how the woman is being transfigured into a place
similarly constructed like one in a galactic context, a place for the poet to rest
and feel secure; an interval for its adventure towards a new poetry. However,
not only the galactic images are placed apposed the woman figure, so does the
light become recurrently visible when she is being mentioned, as seen in the
analysis and as the lines of the same canto illustrates: Leaving you leave a star
in your place / Your lights fade like a passing ship (5-6). In verses that remark
the purpose of admiration of the female character in poetry, the author seems to
wonder the ways of poetry and language by connecting such lightened galactic
space with the goal of his poetic praise, during the last lines of canto II:
If you died
The stars despite their kindled lamps
Would lose their way
What would the universe become?
By leaving the question without visible answers, the poet proves the importance
of the femme in its poetry and immediately leaves it ahead of the rest of the
poetical components. The female character is being portrayed along with the
elements of major importance for the poem as Altazors major distraction. As we
take into consideration the examples exposed, it is clear that, when it comes to
his Aesthetic Vision, the poetic decisions provided by the author evoke the
image of a woman that symbolizes admiration, respect, and maternal-like
security for the poet.
4.2.2. Ezra Pounds Ripostes
When analyzing Ezra Pounds collection Ripostes, an equitable use of
abstract and concrete terminologies stands out as one main characteristic. Even
though there is a strong presence of abstraction in poems like In Exitum
Cuiusdam, An Immorality or An Object, the last being totally formed by
words of this type, other poems of the title like Salve Pontifex or Apparuit
include concreteness that balances and regulates such use of diction.
An important feature noticeable in Pounds diction is the authors
recurrent use of nature-related diction that becomes of primary importance for
this work. From such use, the recurrent apparition of plant and sea-related
terms, whether in a slight or total dominion over the poems, can be seen
throughout the collection. Trees and flowers are recurrently presented in poems
like Apparuit, A Girl, Echoes I, Echoes II, An Immorality or A Virginal,
being accompanied with the image of women, sometimes as part of their
composition, yet, in a vast majority as decorative elements of the physical and
poetical context. This, being no surprise, is also how the sea-related terminology
becomes exposed in Pounds writing. In Portrait of a Femme, the sea-related
terminology is basically being employed and exposed as being part of the
context in which the poem is formed, as it is mentioned: for all this sea-hord of
dedicious things (25). It becomes essential, then, to understand that Pounds
use of sea-terminology does not only offer the sea as a landscape, but also as a
central point for the movement of the poem, as in The Needle, where the
oceanic diction is being exposed surrounding the speaker, and as moving him
without giving him any kind of control. Sub-mare is a perfect example for this, for
the work mixes both plant and sea-related terminologies and it gives us an
insight into Pounds view: these elements are hovering (2) around the speaker
and are familiar of the god (9), representing poetical spaces and decorations
and the use of such antique diction a basic, yet important relation to highlight
when analyzing the Aesthetic Vision of the author.
The mythological references that do also appear as important elements of
the authors diction, become essential when analyzing the inclusions of such
archaisms, for most of the poems that posses this type of terminologies are
clearly contextualized on mythological or historical registers: The Tomb At Ark
aar, for example, shows the Egyptian culture being melted with the archaic
voice of a speaking soul, as well as Echoes II, Salve Pontifex, and
Pan Is Dead present Greek mythology through the antique composition of its
verses. It becomes visible, so, that for the author the inclusion of archaisms
brings satisfactory results towards the enhancement of his poetical themes:
elements that serve as a valuable poetical tool for the author to arrange and
express his abundant knowledge on mythological accounts a knowledge in
historic elements that appears as a main interest for the author.
The inclusion of both archaisms and mythological references not only
enrich the themes, but give the poems a profound complexity. Often, the
references are presented shortly, most of the times, in names and titles, being
the context not explicitly exposed to the readers, but giving them clues to
formulate such. The intention of Pound seems to be the following: to use these
elements in order to create poetry of complexity, which needs attention and
careful reading. The decision of including such elements combined represents
they seem to be juxtaposed with the image of the tree, where branches and
leaves embrace them.
The relation the author creates among the femme and nature, then, gives
us a clue of the authors vision of a woman: the femme is being exposed as
deeply connected to the earth and its natural elements, appearing as some sort
of Mother Earth in front the eyes of the speakers. Such conclusion, even
though it may sound strange as it is, makes total sense when looking at the
other types of female characters that appear during Salve Pontifex. In the
mythological poem, nymphs, hamadryads and, most importantly, Persephone
are introduced in the verses, being all of them divine spirits who animate
nature (Nymph). The Greek goddess is, in mythology, the personification of
spring, an attribute that gives to the image of women a fecund power that can
be seen in the characteristics of the ladies being evoked in the poems The
Needle and A Virginal, both of erotic nature. The relation established,
understood as a literary decision made by the author, then, presents women
surrounded by natural elements, juxtaposed, as if they had the ability to manifest
natural incidents around them; as beings of fecund attributions that represent
what has to be admired and erotically desired.
4.3. Imagery
4.3.1. Vicente Huidobros Altazor
Imagery in Altazor is characterized by its ample variety of features. The
first aspect to consider is the predominance of certain types of imagery over
others. Although gustatory, auditory and tactile imagery do appear at times in
the astral epic, the visual and the kinetic type are the ones that rise as the
nucleus around which the rest of the senses get excited. In the case of visual
imagery, Huidobros special quality of mixing concrete and abstract
terminologies renders the reader a peculiar exaltation of the visual sense; the
exceptional combination used from the preface to the sixth of the cantos
produces, with the concrete words, the evocation of elaborated and detailed
images, whereas the inclusion of the abstract terms adds the touch of
incomprehension, diffuseness, and chaos, which is emphasized with the
incoherent relation among the images provoked, as it is shown in canto V: The
hills throw birds in our faces / dawn rises with the hope of aeroplanes / Under
the vault that has filtered the light for so many centuries (211-213). In this
sense, Huidobros use of visual imagery in Altazor serves as a crucial technique
to produce and transmit the special sensation of entropic pleasure of the Poetic
State and, therefore, as an essential component of his Aesthetic Vision.
Actually, the fact that almost every verse in Altazor generates this kind of
exaltation of the visual sense proves the idea that to evoke this sort of visual
stimuli was a main concern for the Chilean author.
Similar importance is given to the presence of kinetic imagery by the
author. Even if the use of this type of imagery is not as frequent as the visual,
the idea of movement arises as fundamental in the understanding of the work.
Altazors inexorable falling is indeed a vital idea of the book, for it represents the
characters epic journey to the creation of the new language. The motion of the
poem is presented directly with verses such as Fall / Perpetually fall (33) in
canto I, but also indirectly: like in the first line of the forth canto Theres no time
to loose where, even if the phrase does not evoke any specific movement, it
produces the sensation of velocity and rushing. The second canto, which
embodies the heros deviation from his fate, shows the importance of this type of
imagery in Altazor, for the plot-lapse is supported by the motion-pause; the
change pace in that canto evokes slow movement or absence of it.
Another important element in this poetic work with respect to the use of
imagery is the formation of visual pictures in mutation. This non-classified
imagery juxtaposes the visual and the kinetic type in one component which is
similar to a video or a motion picture a technique that is clearly depicted in the
analysis of the fifth canto. The importance of this treatment of imagery does not
lie in its constant use (because there is no such) but in the incredible
manipulation of this poetic device which gives the reader the possibility of new
experimentations with respect to the representation of mental pictures.
pictures which transports the reader to a more advance level in the creation of
images a technique that is depicted in the analysis of poems such as
Apparuit and Salve Pontifex.
The amalgamation of different types of imagery in one complex unity that
excites two or more senses is also present in the pages of Ripostes as it is
shown in the beginning of Salve Pointifex:
One after one they leave thee,
High Priest of Iacchus,
Intoning thy melodies as winds
intone
The whisperings of leaves on sunlit days. (1-4)
These verses stimulate, at the same time, the kinetic sense in the first line, the
auditory sense in the third one and the visual and auditory in the last one in a
unity of elaborated conformation.
All these aspects previously mentioned synergistically combine towards
Pounds vital purpose in terms of imagery: the conveying of meaning and the
transmutation of the Poetic State through stimulation of the senses that evoke
clear, defined, and precise images a decision that clearly supports the idea
that the utilization of imageries is a fundamental aspect of Pounds Aesthetic
Vision.
Chapter 5: Conclusions
Vicente Huidobros Altazor and Ezra Pounds Ripostes are two
remarkable Works of the Spirit that in their fascinating poetical venture exhibit
two different variants of the written art: on the one hand, an innovating epic
poem with touches of modernity; on the other hand, a collection of poems that in
a harmonic flux mix the ancient with the new. Nevertheless, despite the distinct
nature of both works in terms of its internal organizational structure, the
evidences exposed so far show that substantial similarities can be seen
regarding the Aesthetic Vision they portray. Following the same structure used
during the whole investigation, these similarities will be presented in three
sections: poetical relevance, diction and imagery.
Poetical Relevance
The most important similitude between Altazor and Ripostes that appears
when evaluating the relevance that the two works had in the field of poetry is the
defiant essence of both creations. Being books written and published at the
beginning of the 20th century, both works represent important breaks in the
poetry of their respective contexts. With the incorporation of new forms, free
verse and direct language, Ripostes sets the bases for Imagism and serves as
Pounds transition to his modern period; whereas Altazor, with the creation of
the new language and the rupture from the traditional structures of poetry,
founds Creationism and frees poetry to a world of new possibilities. Along these
lines, the Aesthetic Visions presented in Altazor and Ripostes express not only a
reaction against the orthodox rules of poetry but also the beginning of new forms
and methods, and signify the starting point of the modern period in their
respective contexts. In other words, both works produced a significant impact in
the written art of poetry and strongly influenced generation of writers thereafter.
Diction
With respect to diction, the main difference resides in the contrast
Imagery
The constant elicitation of images is a decision made by the poets with a
dissimilar intention: whereas Images, in Ripostes, are most of the time clear and
precise and give the reader tools to understand the content of the poem,
in Altazor the mental pictures help to create the characteristic ambience of
chaos and incomprehension of the Poetic State. Notwithstanding, the evocation
of imagery is probably the most similar aspect between these two works. The
constant apparition of this type of excitation represents in both cases a central
preoccupation for the poets, being probably the most distinctive feature of the
two works. Along these lines, the techniques used for Pound and Huidobro to
produce such effects show extraordinary resemblances.
In Altazor as well as in Ripostes, there is a utilization of all the types of
imagery that shows the exceptional ability of the two poets regarding the
manipulation of mental images. However, the visual and the kinetic type are
without a doubt the most predominant ones in both works. While gustatory,
auditory and tactile imagery are exhibited with the intention of decorating the
ambience of the poem or increasing certain sensations, visual and kinetic
imagery are presented in an indissoluble union with the essential nature of the
poems. In other words, if the evocation of visual and kinetic imagery had been
taken out of the compositions, the substance of the poems would be lost.
Following this direction, both authors take the formulation of mental
images one step further in order to transmit their poetical experience. Two
techniques are used to produce such effect: the combination of different types of
imageries in one complex unit that stimulates more than one sense; and the
incorporation of mutating images that transforms and gives motion to the
sensorial evocations.
Notes
1. This notion is discussed in depth in Chapter 2 of this investigation.
2. All quotes extracted from the collection Teora potica y esttica by
Paul Valry, edited by Valeriano Bozal, have been translated by the authors of
this investigation.
3. All the verses presented during sections 3.1., 4.1.1. and 4.2.3.1.
correspond to Vicente Huidobros Altazor (Weinbergers version). The
numbering of the verses starts over at each Canto.
4. All the verses presented during this section (3.2) correspond to
Ripostes of Ezra Pound.
Works Cited
Aesthetic. Oxford Dictionary of English. 3rd ed. 2010. Print.
Bozal, Valeriano, comp. and ed. Teora potica y esttica de Paul Valry. Ed.
Valeriano Bozal. 2nd ed. Spain: Visor, 1998. Print.
Cavalcanti, Guido, Sonnet XVI. The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti.
Ed. Ezra Pound. Trans. Ezra Pound. 1st ed. Boston: Small, Maynard and
Company, 1912; N. pag. Sonnets.org. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.
Gill, Richard. Mastering English Literature. 2nd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave, 1995.
Print.
Gwynn, R.S. Introduction. Poetry: A Pocket Anthology. 6th ed. New York:
Pearson Longman, 2009. 1-44. Print.
Hann, scar. Del Gnesis al Apocalipsis. El Pasajero de su Destino. By
Vicente Huidobro. Ed. and comp. scar Hann. Sevilla: Sibila, 2008. 5-16.
Print.
Huidobro, Vicente. Altazor: or a Voyage in a Parachute. Trans. Eliot
Weinberger. Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2003. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking and
Writing. Bedford: St. Martin, 2005; N. pag. Bsc.bedfordstmartins.com.
Web. 2 Nov. 2011.
Moody, Anthony David. Ezra Pound: The Young Genius. 1st ed. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007.
Works Consulted
Buchholz, Elke L., et al. Art: A World History. 1st ed. New York: Abrams, 2007.
Print.
Debussy, Claude. Images. Perf. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. RAI Studios,
1962. CD.
Garca-Huidobro, Cecilia, comp. and ed. Vicente Huidobro a La Intemperie:
Entrevistas (1915-1946). 1st ed. Chile: Editorial Sudamericana Chilena,
2000.
Kolln, Martha and Robert Funk. Understanding English Grammar. 8th ed. New
York: Longman, 2009.
Nmez, Nan, comp. and ed. Poesa Chilena Contempornea: Breve Antologa
Crtica. 2nd ed. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1998.