Jeff Grieneisen

Prof. Gery

ENGL 4391

28 Aug. 2004

Canto XXXI—The Epi(c) Center

Any examination of Ezra Pound’s Cantos necessarily involves a debate over the cohesiveness of the poem. Was he in control of the seemingly random insertion of languages? Did he know what he was doing when he overlapped and jumped from one time period to the next? An increasing number of scholars are finding the Cantos to be, in fact, cohesive; moreover, they are finding the Cantos to be the epic of the 20^th century.

Any discussion of the cohesiveness and appropriate connections in the Cantos involves a dialogue about such connections. Beginning with the Odyssey, the Cantos takes the reader through other epics and historical tales. John Gery quoted from Pound’s Selected Letters in a 2004 class in Brunnenburg. Pound states “perhaps as the poem goes on I shall be able to make everything clearer. The first 11…are preparation for the palate” (Gery). As such, the reader must be aware of the distinct building of the Cantos, which culminates at the center with Cantos XXXI-XXXIII where “Canto XXXI” holds the key to the Cantos overall.

The Cantos begins with a historical foundation of epics as the origins of humanity. However, this beginning is not only a historical beginning but also the groundwork that sets the pace for the rest of the work. For instance, “in the sailors’ plight [of “Canto II”], he [Pound] introduced the type of circumstance that would send character after character in Cantos I-XXX crashing into collision with the gods” (Bush 265). Despite these collisions among characters, we see the recurrence of Pound’s themes throughout the Cantos in his “ply over ply” (as seen in “Canto IV”) method. “Cantos XXXI-XXXIII” provide the intersection of all of Pound’s major themes of the political and artistic hero, time, ideas into action and economy, heaped upon the worthy shoulders of Pound’s central political hero, Thomas Jefferson.

One aspect in which “Canto XXXI” acts as central to the Cantos, overall, is in its treatment of Jefferson, who acts as a modern model for all political and artistic heroes. While Pound is remembered for his associations with Benito Mussolini, Jefferson is the true hero while Mussolini is heroic insomuch as he resembles Jefferson. From the publication of Jefferson and/or Mussolini around the same time as “Canto XXXI,” the reader is aware of Pound’s amalgamation of the two figures. Throughout the Cantos, Pound values other heroic figures such as Sigismundo Malatesta, Homer, Dante, and John Adams. Yet, even though Pound writes a significant section on Adams, one that spans ten cantos (as many as Pound devotes to Chinese dynasties), it is Jefferson who appears first and at the most significant location—the beginning of “Eleven New Cantos.” While readers will find a series of Adams Cantos, the Jefferson Nuevo Mundo Cantos get first mention, and it is in the Jefferson Cantos where the reader meets Adams. In a 1957 letter from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Pound wrote to Harry M. Meacham “…it probably has not occurred to you that I am not raging to get back to Italy, that I wrote a couple of cantos re. T. Jefferson before I did longer ones on Adams” (53). While this may have been Pound’s explanation to those who privilege Adams, it betrays Pound’s own affinity to Jefferson. As with other political figures throughout the Cantos, Pound seems to associate himself with Jefferson as “integrat[ing] a program of economic development and a policy for nation building into a radical moral theory” (Appleby n. pag.). Pound identifies with Jefferson as a radical moral theorist in economy and development.

The actual placement of the Jefferson Canto, immediately after the “Draft of XXX Cantos” introduction, is also telling as to its thematic centrality to the Cantos. This is the reader’s first glimpse of a recognizable America and the reader’s first encounter with such modern figures. As such, the Jefferson Canto that Pound creates provides either a shift in or a completion of his own perspective of hero. While Pound also praises Mussolini for his economic principles, Mussolini is only as good as these previous leaders (Jefferson and Adams). The radical shift of “Canto XXXI” takes us, for the first time, into an era that is recent and directly applicable to the American audience, and his own application is important to Pound, for even though he lived abroad while composing the canto, he still considered himself an American citizen and was concerned with the plight of America. As early as 1909, Pound writes “The vital part of my message, taken from the sap and fibre of America, is the same as his [Walt Whitman’s] (Pearce 163). In the thirties, Pound is concerned about America’s involvement in the war. Tytell reports:

Pound had come to America because he wanted to personally convince Franklin Delano Roosevelt that war was not in America’s best interests. Pound was not doing this exclusively out of Fascist sympathies…[h]is daughter, Mary, … argued in her book Discretions that her father’s desire to confront FDR was ‘not megalomania but a sense of responsibility carried to the extreme.’ (251)

One may ask what his sense of responsibility would include. As an expatriate, he lived abroad, yet he still felt obligated to share his views with America in order that he may provide the antidote to war. It is this concern that seems to have driven “Canto XXXI”.

The placement of “Canto XXXI” as such a central section also helps to create ties to the rest of the epic, as “Jefferson Nuovo Mundo”contains references Kung (Confucius), time, economics, government/politics, art, and science/invention. Other than these obvious ties, through its very structure, “Canto XXXI” acts as a pivotal point and focus for the Cantos as a whole. While “Drafts of XXX Cantos” acts to set up the exploration, the search for truths, XXXI brings the reader to a modern exploration. The Canto begins with a quote from Ecclesiastes 3:7: “Tempus loquendi, / Tempus tacendi,” the personal motto of Sigismundo Malatesta (which takes the reader back to “Canto VII”), and it mimics the Cantos as having a beginning in a distant past. In this way, the very structure of XXXI reflects the larger structure of the epic. And as with much of the Cantos, it is really gathered rather than composed, as it consists entirely of “found” letter fragments. However, Pound makes these letter fragments new by organizing them in such a way to promote his ideals of politics, finance, government, art, etc.

Besides its structure, Pound has laid a foundation, or “prepar[ed] the palate” of the reader for all of the major themes of the Cantos in the first section, “Drafts of XXX Cantos.” One of these themes is that of time, and specifically, the wise use of time. Gery states that Tyrrell translates “Tempus loquendi…” as “there is a time to speak, there is a time to be silent.” “Tempus loquendi…” is the motto inscribed over the tomb of Isotta degli Atti, Sigismundo Malatesta’s mistress (Forse n. pag.). Pound proclaims Malatesta to be one of the great heroes, and in fact devotes so much of “Cantos I-VIII” to Malatesta that these are also referred to as the Malatesta Cantos. In an earlier letter, Pound used the “time for silence” line in reference to the time needed to gather knowledge. This knowledge-gathering time is central to Pound’s beliefs of humanity, itself, and recurs throughout the Cantos such as in “Canto LXXXI”: “Master thyself, then others shall thee beare”(541). The connection of “Tempus loquendi…” to internal order is also noticed by Tytell who states that “other bits of external evidence also point to a Confucian interpretation of ‘Tempus tacendi’ as the time a man needs to attain ‘order within,’ after which must come the complementary ‘Tempus loquendi,’ the time for effective creative action” (144). In order to master oneself, one must have time, and more importantly, one must use this time wisely for reflection, contemplation, and as we shall later see, for action. In a sense, this time statement relates to Kung (Confucius), specifically in “Canto XIII,” when after testing four young men as to how they may become known, Kung “smiled upon all of them equally… [for] ‘They have all answered correctly, / ‘that is to say, each in his nature’” (58). Thus, time allowing for order, and inner order, to Pound is vital to the successful human. This relates to XXXI in the tale of Franklin at work when his servant enters to announce dinner. Franklin proclaims “’And must I break the chain of my thoughts to / “’go down and gnaw a morsel of damned hog’s arse’” (156), to which Pound, through Adams (writing to Jefferson) replies “take away appetite, and the present generation would not / Live a month, and no future generation would exist” (156). Here Adams is criticizing Franklin’s inability to reason the appropriate time for events: the time to eat and the time to study. The result is the failure of society. To follow this relationship further, Kung refers to Tiresias (who appears in earlier and later cantos) as having a view of the truth (a true prophesy) and therefore a view of the future.

In addition to specific historic references, the idea of time transcends the simple idea of taking one’s time to examine facts. Time is highlighted, as it stands alone on line four of “Canto XXXI,” and then is implied in line five “modern dress for your statue” as a reference to timelessness. Again, Pound might apply this notion of time to himself as the time necessary for a country to truly act in its citizens’ best interest. Jefferson’s awareness of time and seasons is evident in the fragment of his letter to D. Carr on page 156: “..measures / circumstances of times seemed to call for… / produce some channel of correspondence…this was in ’73.” Jefferson here negotiates the state of the world between 1773 and 1785, where “circumstances of times” could refer to either the cultural times between these two dates or individual periods of time through which one must wait (“tempus loquendi…”). Such practicality made Jefferson the great leader of the country, and Pound felt as though he, too, possessed this practicality. In composing The Cantos, Pound necessarily had to take his time, to reject old ways that did not work and to promote ways that did.

Bringing together the Poundian portrayals of hero and time are the Jeffersonian governmental policies of agrarian economy, commerce, and democracy, all which support. Pound’s “ideas into action.” According to Houghton Mifflin’s web site companion to its American history book, Jefferson set new presidential standards by walking to his own inauguration, and by dressing like an ordinary citizen. It is perhaps these tenets that Pound found so attractive of Jefferson, yet more likely, it is the underlying success in business and politics that lie beneath such actions (Banning n. pag). A strong political figure such as Jefferson knows how to bide time and more importantly, knows how to take action when necessary. In fact, it is “…the fine balance between thought and action that Pound considers responsible for the greatness of leaders like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams…” (Tytell 146). Evidence of Jefferson’s practicality (in taking action) is in the line “..this was the state of things in 1785…” (Pound 156). Jefferson is able to identify the reality, and to separate the past from the present, even while using lessons from the past to inform his present decisions, just as Pound is doing with the Cantos.

Jefferson’s mastery of time and action (seen also in Malatesta and Mussolini) results in his economic success, another major theme that Pound explores in the Cantos, and specifically in “Canto XXXI.” Only through successful economics, specifically an agrarian economy where each person has his or her own duty, can a society be successful. Pound introduces economy in XXXI through the canal (necessary for transportation of goods) and slavery (the emancipation of which Jefferson is credited with foreseeing). Pound also includes invention (the screw propeller) as an element that successfully boosts economy, as the propeller can create vessels capable of transporting goods more quickly.

Perhaps most significant in economics is the negative portrayal of taxation, akin to usury on a state level. Pound figures:

“Their tobacco, 9 millinos, delivered in port of France;

6 millions to manufacture

on which the king takes thirty million

that cost 25 odd to collect

so that in all it costs 72 million livres to the

consumer……

persuaded (I am) in this branch of the revenue

the collection absorbs too much. (154)

While this may not be literal usury, it illustrates Pound’s preoccupation with money, specifically, the uninformed use of money. He seemed to have no problem when, a few lines later, a fragment of a letter ascribed to Jefferson states “So critical the state of that country [France] / moneyed men I imagine are glad to place their money abroad. / Mr Adams cold borrow there for us” (154). This borrowing from the wealthy “moneyed men” of France would bring together both nations by the sharing of money. Such recognition of the opportunity to procure money from those who do not need it (the moneyed men) for those who do need it (the country “on the eve of a XTZBK49HT [bankruptcy]” (154)), illustrates the action, or the recognition of the time for action, that the heroic Jefferson possesses.

And as with the quotes, themselves, as well as translations throughout, Pound does not concern himself with faithful representation or accuracy. Instead, Pound utilizes these numbers, as he does his loose translations, to make a point. The use of approximate or estimated numbers further links this canto to the rest of the poem, as Pound consistently utilizes material for his ends, namely to illustrate how we may be happy if only we pursue logic (monetary or otherwise).

What separates this canto from the others is the novelty of its structure as less lyrical than the preceding cantos and the familiar subject. “Canto XXXI” immediately follows the introduction. Our palate has been prepared, and now we plunge into the present (or rather, the colonial present). “Canto XXXI” addresses America, which Pound still loved despite his fascism and allegiance to Mussolini. In fact, years after publishing “Canto XXXI,” Pound would return to America to seek an audience with Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Houghton Mifflin Textbook Site for The Heath Anthology of American Literature states that “in 1939 [Pound] made a trip to Washington, D.C., where he spoke with members of Congress about his economic policies and about his fear that Roosevelt, the bankers, and the armaments industry were leading America into another war” (n.pag.). Therefore, despite his allegiance to Mussolini, Pound still loved America and was willing to fight for its success, exactly as he attempted in the canto. Much as Pound fights for America in his real life, he is trying to illustrate the best of America—what America could be—if only it could again have a leader of action. Pound’s fascination with Mussolini seemed to be contingent upon Mussolini’s actions as reminiscent of the colonial leaders. Myles Kantor writes: “Elated by his fascist regime, Pound wrote in 1933 (the year he also met Mussolini), ‘The heritage of Jefferson, Quincy Adams, old John Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, is HERE, NOW in the Italian peninsula at the beginning of the fascist second decennio [decade], not in Massachusetts or Delaware’ (n.pag.). Thus, as Pound sees the old style of Jefferson in Mussolini, he proclaims the progress of Mussolini’s Italy. Because Pound sees Mussolini as the embodiment of the American heritage (in Italy), “Canto XXXI” would seem to foretell of the impending references to Mussolini. As such, the canto is setting up the reader for what will come and is again central to Pound’s work. To Pound, Mussolini and Jefferson, like Pound himself, believed in utility, and the recognition of every citizen’s and every object’s utility was the path to the paradiso, which underscores the Cantos. Pound is creating, through “Adams and Jefferson [as] his particular heroes … an effort to show that Mussolini’s program is intended to carry these basic principles, imbedded in the constitution but perverted by banking interests, into action…contrasting centers of value…” (Rosenthal 161). So even as Pound is most frequently associated with Mussolini, this connection is evident only to the extent that Mussolini is like Jefferson, and Jefferson’s ideas are useful and real.

In a structural sense, “Canto XXXI” is much like the America with which Pound introduces it. Hugh Kenner writes that because “American soil require[s] a more energetic furrow, Jefferson designed a New World plough, so specifiable that any blacksmith could duplicate it. Thus every smithy would become one cell in a diffuse invisible plough factory” (318). Further, “Pound’s structures, like Jefferson’s plough, were meant to be useful: to be validated therefore not by his opinions but by the unarguable existence of what exists” (Kenner 325). In this sense, “Canto XXXI” is Pound’s plough, lying in the furrow just beyond the introduction of “Drafts of XXX Cantos.” It is in “Canto XXXI” that Pound puts the blade of this plough to the paper and provides the reader with what may be the first entirely accessible canto. While many argue that the references remain ambiguous, the references all come from the Bible, Jefferson or Adams.

One must also consider that Pound is interested in history not as a set of facts, but as the underlying truths of such moments. As Pearce observes, Pound was interested “…not in an actual Adams but a ‘true’ one…” (174), and the same may be said for Jefferson, Mussolini, and all of Pound’s other historical heroic figures. In order to create these ‘true’ identities of his heroes, Pound arranged the fragments of letters in a way that would highlight the genius of Jefferson. He mixes the references of such ideals as Jefferson re-writing the Bible with Jefferson (a slaveholder) predicting the abolition of slavery. To have presented a chronological account of Jefferson would have been to create a history text rather than a poem, and the reader would have learned nothing of the ideal state to which he or she must aspire. In his book, Guide to Kulchur, Pound writes “the history of culture is the history of ideas going into action” (qtd. in Pearce 172), and nowhere is this more evident than in the blending of fragments in the Jefferson canto.

Some critics warn against placing too much emphasis on the shift of “Eleven New Cantos;” however, this is to ignore the real shift that brings the reader forward and then looks backward. Bush states:

“Parts of ‘Eleven New Cantos, XXXI-XLI,’ published in 1934, revealed yet another shift in emphasis, this time toward spatial configuration and away from the expressive movement of an anterior sensibility or of a controlling music…[here, excerpt from XXXVII] …It would be wrong, however, to interpret a change in stress as a genuine new beginning” (13).

Because “Canto XXXI” represents such a dramatic shift in voice and in subject, and because it ushers in a new age in Pound’s own life (published just after his meetings with Mussolini), it is unrealistic to ignore the new direction of the Cantos. This said, we cannot read “Canto XXXI” as an independent canto, as no canto stands alone outside of its function of a part of the whole epic. We recognize, as Eugene Nassar does, that “the Cantos of the thirties “incorporat[ed] for long stretches the techniques of presentation developed in the Malatesta Cantos 8-11” (51). Despite these passages, the subject matter shifts, at a pivotal moment in both Pound’s life and Pound’s work.

Throughout all of the threads that bind “Canto XXXI” to the rest of the epic, what remains in the forefront is Pound’s admiration for anyone who builds. Building requires time, patience, and action, all of which are characteristics of heroic figures. These qualities seem to lie at the center of “Canto XXXI” and most prominently in Jefferson, whom Pound credits with having the best plan for rebuilding America after The War of 1812. “Canto XXXI” is a microcosm of The Cantos that is focused on Pound’s objective at that moment in time, namely, keeping America out of the business of Europeans. Throughout this Canto, he criticizes the European processes of kingship and taxation, for these act to reduce any citizens from a state when they can truly search for their own sense of beauty. The Cantos follows this exploration to the search for truth, from inferno to paradiso, through timing and action. Good economics, being necessary for survival, may be proposed only by those with the heroic foresight to practice good use of timing and action, and this sense of economics, too, is central to “Canto XXXI”.

While the Cantos spends over 800 pages carrying the reader through past and present, Pound does not believe in the simplicity of setting past against present in order to find the truth. In a letter to The New English Weekly Pound writes

the poem is not a dualism of past against present. Monism is pretty bad, but dualism (Miltonic Puritanism, etc) is just plain lousy. [par.] The poem should establish a hierarchy of values, not simply: past is good, present is bad, which I certainly do not believe…If the reader wants three categories he can find them rather better in: permanent, recurrent and merely haphazard or casual. (qtd. in Bush 14)

Instead, he believes in highlighting the truly heroic and utilizing historical texts in an artistic manner rather than in a chronological way. Pound establishes his “hierarchy of values” not in the past, but in the opportunity to realize the past (Jefferson) in the present (Mussolini). As such, he sets historical texts most bluntly against one another to highlight the observations and actions of Jefferson, as “nothing surpasses the evidence that CIVILIZATION WAS in America, than the series of letters exchanged between Jefferson and John Adams during the decade of reconciliation after their disagreements” (Pearlman 139). In this way, Pound is utilizing the exchange of letters between men who are past their prime. The letters are not written in the midst of their actions, but rather in reflection. However, as with other historical elements, the chronology of the letters is insignificant. What matters to Pound is that he has portrayed the genius of the greatest mind in world history, and he has structured the Cantos in such a way that “Canto XXXI,” through its abrupt shift in voice and its focus on the heroic figure, acts as the central thread through which we can trace Pound’s innermost passions and from which we can find our own cultural salvation.

Works Cited

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