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STEPHEN SPENDER
Pound, in the
Cantos,
is as eclectic as a painter like Picasso in
his
wide wandering over all history and
all
mythology.
Although the reputation of Yeats is unimpaired, and although
Pound's cantos are vigorously defended, nevertheless the tendency
of recent poetry and criticism is against the freedom of choice of
tradition which Yeats, and Pound, and Joyce, and Eliot, in
The
Waste Land,
shared with the painters and with Stravinsky. The
modern painter, according to Mr. Hodin's account of what makes
him modern, might be seen as asking himself "What tradition should
I choose, that would best serve my purpose in inventing my own new
style?" But the attitude which has more and more divided the
poets from the painters is that poets have been influenced by critics
to ask themselves "what tradition am I already
in?"
And the critics
have also pressed upon them that the correct answer to this question
is the answer discoverable to criticism. They have argued, against
Mr. Hodin, that there is no such thing as freedom to choose a tradition
which at the same time breaks with the "chronological tradition."
There is-they have suggested-a choice between true tradition and
no tradition. True tradition is that past which survives in a con–
tinuous-if very fragile-line into present life, so that if you ap–
prehend it with critical intelligence, it can put you into contact
with some pattern of living in the past. Thus it might be said that
although we do not live in a Christian society, nevertheless, there
IS
a lifeline of Christian tradition which will lead us back imaginatively
and intelligently to true Christian communities. But, in this sense,
there is no pagan tradition. There is just a pagan past.
The prevalent argument is more and more on the lines that
so far from there being a freedom of choice among traditions, there
are extremely few lifelines leading back into past traditions. From
this there naturally follows the idea that there is only one true
tradition anyway, and debate in America and England becomes more
and more concentrated on discussing which is the true line of the
tradition. The tradition is in the Church, say some. Others, embar–
rassed by the fact that it is difficult to agree to this without having
to accept the Church's creed, argue that the tradition is in the
"organic community," or New England, or the South; and since
there is no question of being able to revive these communal patterns,
they conclude that the tradition exists simply in the library of works
