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Zach F. Persson
Dr. Goldwyn
English 377: Modern Poetry
March 30, 2016
The Evolution of Ezra Pound: Hildas Book to Cantos
Ezra Pound was integral to the development of the modernist movement within poetics
and the arts. His circle of friends consisted of the most notable and innovative of modernists. His
opinion on the new art that was surfacing was integral to its growth, however, Hildas Book does
very little to impress modernism upon the reader. Pounds early work, composed as romantic
poems for Hilda Doolittle, fit the mold of the poetry of old that would make Shakespeare proud.
Ezra Pounds work visibly underwent an extreme evolution through the influence of other
modernists such as Hulme and began to reflect Imagism in his poetry more frequently. Pounds
infatuation with the ideal led to his focus on content over form. The content of his Cantos is that
of his political views, notably fascism. The Malatesta Cantos convey Pounds fascism through
his glorification of the 15th century condottiere-for-hire. Similar to the Medicis, Malatesta was a
prominent figure in the Italian Renaissance that many critics belief to be the ideological face of
Pounds fascination with fascism and faith in authoritarian figureheads (Chapman 551-552).
Pounds portrayal of the warlord-diviner denotes his reverence for an authoritarian such as
Benito Mussolini and his fascist regime in Italy. Pounds motives and content evolved in his
poetry beyond the wooing of Hilda Doolittle through romantic and traditional poetics. Pounds
Cantos convey his political views along with his imagiste ideals in the creation of a new form of
poetry. The Malatesta Cantos provide evidence of this evolution from Hildas Book to his work

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that is truly modern. Politics and content are the key aspects that differentiate Pounds early work
from his later works in the Cantos.
The driving inspiration behind Ezra Pounds early work in Hildas Book is rather selfexplanatory: the book consists of romantic poems designed to impress and woo his aristocratic
love interest Hilda Doolittle. Consider his poem Domina:
My Lady is tall and fair to me
She swayeth as a poplar tree
When the wind bloweth merrily
Her eyes are grey as the grey of the sea
Not clouded much to trouble me
When the wind bloweth merrily
My Ladys glance is fair and straight
My Ladys smile is changed of late
When the wind bloweth merrily (Pound 7).
Basic knowledge of traditional poetics allows for discernment of the normative conventions that
Pound is employing in this poem. First, the poem is referring to Hilda Doolittle specifically; it is
a romantic poem where she is the subject and muse; the motivation of the poem is to impress her.
There is an evident meter in addition to each line rhyming with the one preceding it creating a
musical continuity throughout the poem. When the wind bloweth merrily is an example of
repetition in Domina following other well-known conventions of traditional poetry. Although his
name is synonymous with modernist poetry, Pounds early work does not fit into modernism. He
places the content of the poetry as secondary to the form, the tradition that has been laid out by
the poets of the past. His subject matter is hackneyed: a poem conveying the virtue and beauty of
the beloved is certainly nothing new to the world of poetry. Pounds evolution from his early
work is tangible in his essay, A Few Donts by an Imagiste in which he writes:
It is not necessary that a poem should rely on its music, but if it does rely on its music
that music must be such as will delight the expert. Let the neophyte know assonance and

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alliteration, rhyme immediate and delayed, simple and polyphonic, as a musician would
expect to know harmony and counterpoint and all the minutiae of his craft (Pound 203).
In this essay Pound further differentiates his early work from his later work in the Cantos by
distancing himself from the conventions of rhyming, assonance, and alliteration. He, like Hulme,
prefers that the importance of poetry be the image that it creates and where content is of primary
importance while form is secondary.
The Cantos that Ezra Pound wrote in Italy during Benito Mussolinis ascension to power
feature the warlord-condottiere Sigismondo Malatesta as a prominent and powerful authoritarian
figure (Chapman 543). Pounds reputation leads many critics to believe that, his interest in
Malatesta is a logical symptom of his fascist sympathies (Chapman 543). Canto VIII literally
states that Malatesta is Equivalent to: Giohanno of the Medici, a notable figure and family
concerning the Italian Renaissance and patronage of the arts (Pound 28). Malatesta was a
warlord-for-hire available to the prominent Italian city-states of Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome,
and Naples with the goal in mind of restoring his hometown of Rimini to its former glory and
furthering its progression of art and culture (Chapman 545). Malatestas great mission was to
utilize the spoils of war in the restoration of the church of San Francesco, evidence of his artistic
patronage. Lawrence Rainey, one of the preeminent scholars having researched Pounds Cantos
writes:
Pound, in short, had found his imaginary patron and the resolution to the question of art,
authority, and public consensus. The thread that links together this intricate complex of
events and motifs is the figure of the great patron, Sigismondo Malatesta, and the
question of faith in his judgment: through him, the modernist culture of patronage was
assimilated to the emerging culture of Fascism (Rainey 123).

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Pounds perception of Malatesta was that he was the type of ideal patron of the arts that he and
his group of modernist revolutionaries were lacking (Chapman 544). Pound was greatly intrigued
by Malatesta and viewed status as a condottiere-for-hire as, a concomitant consistency of
commitment to supporting the arts and culture of Rimini rather than wanton warmongering
(Chapman 545). This would explain Pounds support for fascist regimes and rash actions of
authoritarian figures such as Mussolini if it serves the purpose of propagating his own art and
individualism. Canto X presents an interesting portrayal of Malatesta in which he is both a
capable military leader and a diviner of the future. Pound writes:
And they came at us with their ecclesiastical legates
Until the eagle lit on his tent pole.
And he said: The Romans would have called that an augury
E gradment li antichi cavaler romanj
davano fed a quisti annutii,
All I want you to do is to follow the orders,
Theyve got a bigger army,
but there are more men in this camp (Pound 47).
Sigismondo Malatesta is depicted to be more than a man in this portion of the Cantos,
evidencing the absolute nature of his authority (Chapman 546). Pounds glorification of
Malatesta is a testament to his perception of authoritarian figures. Malatesta is a retro-fascist
hero in Cantos VIII-XI and the correlation with the time of his writing about the Renaissance
condottiere and the rise of power of Mussolini is no mere coincidence. Malatesta represents the
hope of what Mussolinis fascist regime could be for Ezra Pound and his cohorts. Judging from
these particular Cantos one can discern that politics are the great motivator of Pounds later work
in comparison to the traditional romantic nature of his early work. Additionally, no expert is
required to discern that there is no traditional form to which this excerpt adheres. There is no
rhyme scheme, assonance, or alliteration. Pound employs the usage of another language in order
to deviate from tradition further; his content is the primary and only real concern of the poetry.

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Ezra Pound is synonymous with the modernist movement of poetry and the arts. His early
work is a far cry from what modernism and Imagism exemplifies evidenced in Hildas Book. The
subject matter of that poetry was clichd due to its romantic nature, rhyme scheme, and
repetition. The example from the poem Domina created musical continuity through its traditional
conventions that Pound later disavowed in his essay, A Few Donts by an Imagiste. Ezra Pound
came to the realization that the content of the poetry should never take a back seat to its form.
His motivations and inspiration evolved from his early work in Hildas Book to his later work in
the Cantos, particularly those featuring Sigismondo Malatesta. Pounds later work is motivated
by its political content rather than traditional form and it is exemplified in his ostensible
glorification of the retro-fascist condottiere. Critics find very little coincidence in Pounds
writing of the Malatesta Cantos and the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy. Many
perceive the warlord-diviner authoritarian figure of Malatesta to be analogous to Mussolini and a
fascist propagation by Pound. Such a figure, and in Malatestas case, a patron of the arts and
culture, is a representation of what Mussolinis fascist regime could potentially offer for Pound
and his modernist cohorts. The wanton warmongering of Malatesta is not perceived as such, and
thus, Pounds political agenda shines through his Cantos and the content precludes the form. The
differentiation between Ezra Pounds early work in Hildas Book and his later work in Cantos is
the importance placed on content over form, exemplified in the pro-fascist example of Malatesta,
and the lack of traditional poetic aspects such as rhyming, assonance, and alliteration. The form
is not of importance in the later work, but rather content, the image created, and the message of
what Pound is trying to convey.

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Works Cited
Chapman, Chris. Do You Want Anymore Archaic Information on Folks, up to 1745?:
Rethinking Ezra Pounds Italian Renaissance. Textual Practice, 25.3 (2012): p. 543-562.
Web. Accessed 26 March 2016.
Pound, Ezra. A Few Donts by an Imagiste. Poetry, Vol. 1.6 (1913): pp. 200-206.
Pound, Ezra. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. New York: New Directions, 1995. pp. 28, 47. Print.
Rainey, Lawrence S. Institutions of Modernism: Literary Elites and Public Culture. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1998. pp. 123. Print.