*The following presents my analysis on the similarities between Adrienne Rich and Ezra Pound…have fun.
Through his poetry, Pound experiments with various forms of free verse poetry, looking to break away from traditional forms of poetry. Pound’s poems also are very ambiguous as he favored writing poetry that was abstract, looking to the audience to draw conclusions on the possible meanings of the poems. Pounds ambiguity is effectively portrayed in his poem, “In a Station of the Metro.”
The apparition of theses faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough. (Poetry.com)
This poem contains no traditional poetry “rules,” as it has no rhyme, meter, nor clear subject. However, these two lines contain an endless possibility of meanings. I bet if one were to conduct an experiment, asking one-hundred people to read this poem, he or she would receive one hundred different analysis’s of this poem.
Ezra Pound is known as the founder of the imaginist movement.
A movement in poetry which derived its technique from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry–stressing clarity, precision, and economy of language, and foregoing traditional rhyme and meter. (Poets.org)
Pound believes that concrete images are the foundation his poems. He believes that an image should not only paint a picture, but contain other ideas or connotations, and extract an emotion from the reader. In
“In a Station of The Metro,” he created the image of “faces in the crowd” and within the two lines, this image is vividly portrayed. For me, this image was of hundreds of people riding on a subway, everyone preoccupied with his or her own problems, and completely unaware to the happening of the world around him or her.
Ezra Pound, broke free of the barriers of society through his own, unique style of poetry that was unlike most of the poetry before him. By creating the imagenist movement, it seems as if Pound looked to destroy traditional ideologies of how to write poetry, and show that poetry can be beautiful in many forms. His poetry is full of ambiguity, perhaps because because he meant for his poems to have no concrete meaning. In can be assumed that Pound was “lost and confused” as a person because of the life he faced. In 1945, Pound was arrested and charged of treason by the American government for supposedly broadcasting pro-fascist movement information on the public radio. He was not convicted, but shortly after he was forced into the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., and declared mentally ill. It can be assumed that his poetry reflected his feelings of contempt for the government, his poems are nontraditional perhaps because he wanted to prove that the traditional forms of government do not need to be the only accepted forms. Because Pound was supposedly mentally ill, his poetry perhaps has not concrete meaning and instead portrays the fact that he struggled so deeply with finding himself, or his place in the world, that he was driven insane.
Though examing the biographical information and styles of Ezra Pound compared to Adrienne Rich, I believe that she drew influence from Pound, and his unique stlyle, as she, too, struggled to find herself in the society. This struggle becomes clear through her poetry.
Adrienne Rich published her first book of poetry in 1951, entitled “A Change of World.” Her poems in these works were described by Randall Jarral, a fellow poet, as “poems of a woman living in a fairytale.” (Poetry.org) At this point, Rich had not yet become involved in the world of polictis and feminism. She had not experienced nor heard about the horrers of the Vietnam War, and the crushing realization that she felt trapped in a “man’s world,” where women play an insignificant role. A biography about Adrienne Rich, describes the reasoning for the drastic change in Rich’s poetry,
The form of her poems has evolved with her content, moving from tight formalist lyrics to more experimental poems using a combination of techniques: long lines, gaps in the line, interjections of prose, juxtaposition of voices and motifs, didacticism, and informal expression. Indeed, no poet’s career reflects the cultural and poetic transformations undergone in the United States during the 2Oth century better than that of Adrienne Rich. (Americanpoets.com)
In 1963, Rich published “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” and readers were able to recognize the dramitic change in her poetry style that resulted from her experciences as a mother and wife. And her increaseing involvement in the anti-war and feminist movement. After the book came out, Rich stated her reasoning behind the drastic change in poetry style and subject,
I did this because I was finished with the idea of a poem as a single, encapsulated event, a work of art complete in itself; I knew my life was changing, my work was changing, and I needed to indicate to readers my sense of being engaged in a long, continuous process. (Americanpoets.com)
The changes in Rich’s life compelled Rich to experience with new methods of poetry-writing. As she turned away from traditional poetry, and traditional subjects, Rich explored and experimented with new , untradidtional forms of poetry that embodid her goal to break away from the normal standards of society. Her poetry has no definite rhyme or meter, and they explore controversial subjects such as the role of women, and Rich’s sexuality. Both Pound and Rich were frustrated with society, Pound politically and Rich socially and politically. Because their forms of poetry were untraditional and lacking in concrete meaning, both poets seem to have attempted to “prove tradiditional society wrong” by using unconventional meathods of poetry.
It is also interesting to note that Pound and Rich write most of thier poetry in the first person. This gives each poem a more connected feeling, as each poem seems to become a confession, or a expression of the poet’s intermost thoughts. For example, in Pounds poem “Meditatio,” he writies,
When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal (americanpoets.com)
In this poem, Pound seems to be very blunt in saying that he, himself views dogs as more intelligent than the human race. Pound seems complelled to write whatever is on his mind, and does not “soften” his poetry to avoid hurt feelings. Like Pound, Rich writes most of her poetry in the first person. In her poem, “Fox,” Rich writes
I needed fox Badly I need
a vixen for the long time none had come near me (poetryarchive.org)
In my opinion, Rich seems to be expressing her sexual preferences, announcing to her audience that she is not happy with her relationships with men, and instead prefers women. Rich is using her poetry as an outlet to express the things she may not want to admit in person. Pound and Rich use their poetry as the ultimate “xanga” or “myspace” where they publish whatever is on their mind, no restrictions. The use of “I” or the first person proves that these are their own thoughts and ideas.
