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Ezra Pound Quotes

Powerful Ezra Pound for Daily Growth

About Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound, born on October 30, 1885, in Hailey, Idaho, was an influential American poet, critic, and radio broadcaster. Growing up in a family of musicians and teachers, Pound's interest in literature and poetry emerged early. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was exposed to classical languages and modernist ideas that would shape his future work. Pound moved to Europe in 1908, settling first in London and later in Paris. Here, he became a central figure in the Imagist movement, along with poets such as H.D., Amy Lowell, and T.S. Eliot. Imagism emphasized clarity, precision, and the use of the image as a poetic device. Pound's major works include "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" (1920), "Cantos" (1925-1969), and "The Pisan Cantos" (1948), which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. The "Cantos," an epic poem written in 120 sections, is a complex and challenging work that reflects Pound's intellectual interests and engagements with various historical figures and events. In addition to his poetry, Pound was also a significant literary critic. He championed the works of James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot, among others. However, his career was marked by controversy. During World War II, he broadcast pro-Fascist propaganda for the Italian government, for which he was arrested and detained after the war. He spent 12 years in St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., before being released and returning to Italy, where he died on November 19, 1972. Ezra Pound's impact on modern poetry is undeniable. His innovative techniques, intellectual depth, and unwavering dedication to his craft continue to influence poets and critics worldwide.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The poet's task is to cut the universe into a beautiful slice, as a chef would do."

Ezra Pound's quote emphasizes that a poet's role is not merely to describe or document reality but to reimagine it, much like a skilled chef transforms raw ingredients into a harmonious dish. The poet metaphorically 'cuts' the vastness of the universe, selecting specific elements and arranging them in a unique and aesthetically pleasing way, creating a 'beautiful slice' or poem that resonates with readers. In essence, Pound suggests that poets have a creative power to shape and present reality in a beautiful and meaningful manner.

"In a hundred years from now, it will be difficult to understand how we ever managed with so little poetry."

This quote by Ezra Pound suggests that poetry plays a profound role in human experience and expression, such that its absence or scarcity may seem incomprehensible or unfathomable in the future. He implies that poetry, as a means of conveying emotions, ideas, and cultural values, is an essential part of our humanity, enriching our lives and helping us make sense of the world around us. The quote encourages us to appreciate the power and value of poetry more deeply now, as we may come to find it indispensable in our quest for understanding and meaning over time.

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."

Ezra Pound suggests that poetry is not about expressing raw emotions or personal feelings but rather about transcending them. Poetry offers a means to escape the confines of one's personal experiences and emotions, allowing for a more universal and objective exploration of human conditions. It is an art form that seeks to create beauty and meaning through careful crafting and distancing oneself from immediate personal biases or sentiments.

"The truth is the only hero dignity finds plausible."

This quote by Ezra Pound suggests that genuine respect (dignity) can only be found in truth. In other words, authenticity, honesty, and sincerity are valued above all because they are the qualities most likely to inspire trust and admiration. By emphasizing "the truth," Pound is urging us to prioritize integrity and authenticity in our lives as a means of earning genuine respect and dignity from others.

"Don't expect to be inspired every day. Go to your desk and sweat for a while."

This quote encourages individuals to persevere in their creative or intellectual work, even on days when they don't feel "inspired." It emphasizes the importance of dedication, discipline, and effort, suggesting that consistent hard work can lead to progress, creativity, and growth over time. In essence, it highlights that while inspiration is valuable, it is not a prerequisite for productivity or success - one can still make meaningful strides by putting in the necessary effort every day.

In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.

- Ezra Pound

Inability, Monetary, Read, Centuries

The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism.

- Ezra Pound

Stupid, Mistake, Suburban, Anti-Semitism

If a patron buys from an artist who needs money, the patron then makes himself equal to the artist; he is building art into the world; he creates.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Needs, Buys, Patron

If I could believe the Quakers banned music because church music is so damn bad, I should view them with approval.

- Ezra Pound

Bad, Approval, Could, Quakers

I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown.

- Ezra Pound

Thought, Always, Before, Swine

Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.

- Ezra Pound

Social, Use, Definite, Proportional

All great art is born of the metropolis.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Born, Great Art, Metropolis

Allow me to say that I would long since have committed suicide had desisting made me a professor of Latin.

- Ezra Pound

Committed, Made, Allow, Latin

The real trouble with war (modern war) is that it gives no one a chance to kill the right people.

- Ezra Pound

Chance, Trouble, Modern, Modern War

If the individual, or heretic, gets hold of some essential truth, or sees some error in the system being practiced, he commits so many marginal errors himself that he is worn out before he can establish his point.

- Ezra Pound

Some, Before, Error, Heretic

The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.

- Ezra Pound

Other, Pointless, Symbolic, Bell

The jargon of sculptors is beyond me. I do not know precisely why I admire a green granite female, apparently pregnant monster with one eye going around a square corner.

- Ezra Pound

Green, Admire, Going, Jargon

Gloom and solemnity are entirely out of place in even the most rigorous study of an art originally intended to make glad the heart of man.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Study, Originally, Rigorous

The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.

- Ezra Pound

Image, Cluster, Vortex, Endowed

Good art however 'immoral' is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can NOT be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.

- Ezra Pound

Art, However, Wholly, Good Art

The art of letters will come to an end before A.D. 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Curiosity, Survive, Letters

No verse is libre for the man who wants to do a good job.

- Ezra Pound

Job, Man, Wants, Verse

Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market.

- Ezra Pound

Against, Market, Been, Printing

Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.

- Ezra Pound

Music, Begins, Too, Atrophy

The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.

- Ezra Pound

Artist, Violent, Strife, Uninteresting

Religion, oh, just another of those numerous failures resulting from an attempt to popularize art.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Failures, Numerous, Resulting

Colloquial poetry is to the real art as the barber's wax dummy is to sculpture.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Real, Sculpture, Dummy

And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban night is like the night there... Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.

- Ezra Pound

City, Here, Cut, Flame

It ought to be illegal for an artist to marry. If the artist must marry let him find someone more interested in art, or his art, or the artist part of him, than in him. After which let them take tea together three times a week.

- Ezra Pound

Art, Week, Which, Ought

I could I trust starve like a gentleman. It's listed as part of the poetic training, you know.

- Ezra Pound

Trust, Like, Poetic, Listed

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

- Ezra Pound

Meaning, Degree, Literature, Charged

I consider criticism merely a preliminary excitement, a statement of things a writer has to clear up in his own head sometime or other, probably antecedent to writing; of no value unless it come to fruit in the created work later.

- Ezra Pound

Fruit, Other, Sometime, Excitement

People find ideas a bore because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed ones on a shelf.

- Ezra Pound

Ideas, Find, Distinguish, Shelf

Technique is the test of sincerity. If a thing isn't worth getting the technique to say, it is of inferior value.

- Ezra Pound

Test, Getting, Inferior, Sincerity

Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.

- Ezra Pound

Book, Deep, Amount, Understands

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