Russell Shortt asked:


Ezra Pound pops up everywhere, whether it be as an influence, a precursor, a patron, a link, a facilitator, a whatever; once you read literature you come into contact with the name Ezra Pound. Curiously, coming across his work is a much more difficult endeavour. Pound is generally regarded as the poet most responsible for defining a modernist aesthetic in poetry. His early work was greatly influenced by the pre-Raphaelites, medieval Romance literature and mystical philosophy. However, after moving to London, he was influenced by Ford Maddox Ford and T.E. Hulme to cast off archaic language and re-invent his poetry. Pound regarded William Butler Yeats as the greatest living poet, he befriended him in England, became his secretary and during World War One they lived together in Sussex, studying Japanese, specifically Noh plays. In 1914, Pound married Dorothy Shakespear, an artist and the daughter of Olivia Shakespear, a novelist and former lover of Yeats. In the years prior to World War One, Pound was a major contributor to Imagism and Vorticism, both which were major precursors in the birth of Modernism. They brought to the fore a new breed of writers such as James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost and H.D.. Pound also edited T.S. Eliot?s The Waste Land, the poem which informed the public of the new poetic direction. In 1920, he moved to Paris, hanging in circles of artists, writers and musicians that were revolutionising the whole modern art world. These included members of the Dadaist and Surrealist movements, he was also a good friend of Basil Bunting and Ernest Hemingway.

In 1922 he met and began an affair with Olga Rudge, a violinist, she would remain his mistress for the rest of his life. In Paris, he continued to work on his The Cantos which he had begun in 1915 and would continue to work on until 1962. During his time in Paris, he also wrote critical prose and translations, composed two operas and wrote pieces for the violin. In 1924, Pound moved to Rapallo in Italy where he continued to be a profound influence and mentor to other artists - inspiring the sculptor Heinz Henghes and the poet James Laughlin. He also organised a series of concerts which revived interest in the hitherto neglected Vivaldi. He became involved in the burgeoning fascist movement, meeting Mussolini in 1933, and viewing him as a much needed social and economic reformer, Pound agreed with the anti-Semitic view that the economic system was being corrupted by Jewish financiers. During World War Two, he broadcast a series of talks on Italian radio which dealt with economics and Pound?s belief that representative democracy was being corrupted by the influence of the banks; denunciations on America?s involvement in the war and his anti-Semitic views. The broadcasts were monitored by the Foreign Broadcasting Monitoring Service of the US government and Pound was indicted in abstentia for treason in 1943. When the Allied forces overran Italy, Pound was arrested by US forces and incarcerated in an open cage in Pisa for twenty-five days and appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown. He was brought back to the United States but was found incompetent to face trial by special federal jury and was sent to St. Elizabeth?s Hospital in Washington D.C. where he remained for twelve years. During his early incarceration he wrote The Pisan Cantos for which the Library of Congress awarded him the first Bollingen Prize in 1949. Upon his release he returned to Italy, where he spent his remaining years until his death on 1 November, 1972. Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.