670
candidates for one of the lower
circles of hell. Another repeated
theme is the maxim of Confucius
that good government depends on
clear thinking and so on clear
speech. One of Pound's most mem–
orable lines might be applied to
his own imperfect but magnificent
work: " In the gloom the gold
gathers the light against it."
and to the entire book there at–
taches the pathos of beauty becom–
ing rubble. It seems to say to the
poet of the rising generation, Gen–
tile or J ew, "Consider Ezra, who
was once handsome and tall as
you." Those of us who have been
reading Pound for upwards of thir–
ty years will be reminded by those
fragments of the high delight that
he has afforded us. But unless we
are living only in our memories we
will not be blinded to the poor
thing that
The Pisan Cantos
are.
Nor will we agree that laurels
should be set on the
disjecta mem–
bra
unless as a consolation prize
to the poet for having failed, after
all, to speak clearly for the values
on which our lives literally depend.
But what is true of the whole
poem does not apply to that sec–
tion of it for which the award was
given.
The Pisan Cantos
are like
fragments from a fallen pediment,
so broken and defaced as to give
only a remote notion of the struc–
ture it was intended to surmount.
There are lines here and there that
recall the lost grace, the lost vigor,
Babette Deutsch
'"
,
FREUD, Sigmund. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STUDY.
f
~
2.25
~
ir.,
_.._ ...._._BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE.
2.25
..
_.___ INHIBITION, SYMPTOMS
&
ANXIETY.
2.25
-¥
-t
_ .._.___... GROUP PSYCHOLOGY
&
ANALYSIS OF
EGO.
2.25
REIK, Theodor. FROM 30 YRS. WITH FREUD.
3.75
LAWRENCE, D. H. PLUMED SERPENT.
3.00
CELINE, F. JOURNEY TO END OF NIGHT.
3.50
EMPSON, W. SOME VERSIONS OF PASTORAL.
4.50
SARTRE, J . l'. NAUSEA.
2.50
MICHAUX, HENRI. BARBARIAN IN ASIA.
2.50
POUND, EZRA. SELECTED POEMS.
1.50
SUMMER BARGAINS:
pub. at
with
UJ
MOORE, Marianne. NEVERTHELESS.
1.50
.50
QUESTION OF HENRY JAMES.
Ed. by Dupee
3.75
1.25
GOODMAN, Paul. KAFKA'S PRAYER.
3.00
.75
GOODMAN, Paul. FACTS OF LIFE.
3.00
1.50
HUXLEY, Aldous. MORTAL COILS. play 2.50
.75
PARIS. 50 photos.
2.00
1.00
During July
&
August we will also
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Provincetown,
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A
seasons books
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