Teaching Ezra Pound's Cantos

'Was he a hero?

'Was he a villain?

'He was modern

'Madman.

'No he wasn't, was he?

'He was - old- ancient - eternal-- 

Aeneas come from the shades of Avernus

Odyseuss out of Circe's ingle

Dionysus at Naxos

Metamorphosized 

Into Hemingway's saint 
On the rue-Notre-Dame-des-Champs
Consorting with frogs,
Conjuring up opium jars
For indigent, insolent poets.

Il Miglior Fabbro, no less.
Capisce, Eliot?
Il Duce claimed him
Pisa chained him
To the Muse of hard labour

Much reviled
and admired much

He carried his 'isness' 
across continents 
(Hondh, says the Punjabi sage)

Luminous in the moonlight
Sato's sword unsheathed -
Master Kung's Fu
- Senryu no Michi

Subject rhymes,
Cavalcanti
Cavalcades
Concourses (Concertos?) 
Crowns and Capital capsized

Omnia quae sunt, lumina sunt
Deorum Manium, Flamen Dialis ... 

OI X0ONIOI

Venerandam