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Ezra Pound

Photo: Franz Larese, Erker-Galerie, Easter 1971, Burano, Italy

PoemTalk #41, discussing Ezra Pound's "Canto III," March 15, 2011

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

PoemTalk #12, discussing Ezra Pound's "Cantico del Sole," November 14, 2008

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Ezra Pound's Cantos is published by New Directions Publishing Corp. They can be contacted at editorial[at]ndbooks.com or permissions[at]ndbooks.com.

Pound's Poems and Translations is published by the Library of America.

PennSound Ezra Pound page edited by Richard Sieburth

The Sound of Pound: A Listener's Guide, by Richard Sieburth

Interview with Richard Sieburth by Al Filreis, May 22, 2007, (44:15): MP3

Note: The bracketed page numbers for non-Cantos materials are taken from the Library of America edition of Pound's Poems and Translations. The Canto page numbers are taken from the thirteenth printing (1995) of the New Directions edition of The Cantos of Ezra Pound.

The Harvard Vocarium Readings, Recorded in Cambridge, Mass., May 17, 1939

  1. Sestina: Altaforte (with drums) (3:40): MP3; text [105]
  2. The Seafarer (with drums) (7:08): MP3; text [236]
  3. Homage to Sextus Propertius, Section VI (2:44): MP3 [535-36]

    4. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley [549-59]: [text]

  4. E.P.: Ode Pour L'Election de Son Sepulchre (2:45)MP3
  5. II, IV, & V (2:59): MP3
  6. Yeux Glauques (1:11): MP3
  7. Envoi (1919) (from "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" at the end of Part I) (1:32): MP3
  8. First two sections of Part II of the poem ["1920 (Mauberley)"] (3:07): MP3
  9. Cantico del sole (0:58): MP3 [572]  [text]
  10. Canto XVII ("So that the vine burst from my fingers') (7:00): MP3 [76-79]
  11. Canto XXX [147] (0:58): MP3
  12. Canto XLV [229-30] (3:12): MP3
  13. Canto LVI (with drums) [301-310] (19:30): MP3

"Cantico del Sole" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 12.

Thanks to Don Share, Curator in the G.E. Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard, for assistance.

From the Radio Speeches, recorded in Rome, Italy, January or February, 1942

Canto XLVI [231-235] (17:08): MP3

Recorded by the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] on February 12, 1942. The editors wish to thank Ben Friedlander.

The Caedmon Recordings, recorded in Washington, D.C., June 12, 13, 26, 1958

  1. Exile's Letter [254] (5:08): MP3
  2. The Gypsy [296] (0:53): MP3
  3. Cantico del Sole [572] (0:49): MP3 [text]
  4. Moeurs Contemporaines [522-526] (5:50): MP3 / [text]
  5. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley [549-556] (10:45): MP3 / [text]
  6. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley [557-562] (6:06): MP3 [text]
  7. Canto I [3-5] ("And then went down") (5:32): MP3
  8. Canto IV [13-16] ("Palace in smoky light") (7:31): MP3
  9. Canto XXXVI [177-180] ("A lady asks me") (6:41): MP3
  10. Canto XLV ("With Usura") [229-30] (3:13): MP3
  11. Canto LI (""Shines / in the mind of heaven") [250-52] (3:56): MP3
  12. Canto LXXXIV ("8th October: Si tuit li dolh elh plor") [557-560] (5:35): MP3
  13. From Canto LXXVI ("And the sun high over horizon ...") [477-480] (4:11): MP3
  14. Canto XCIX  ( "Till the blue grass turn yellow") [714-732] (23:37): MP3

These 1958 recordings are from Ezra Pound Reads by Ezra Pound. Copyright © 1960, 1969, 1993 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins.

"Cantico del Sole" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 12.

"Ezra Pound: Readings and Recollections," with D. G. Bridson, April 1959

Complete Recording (55:12): MP3

Singles:

  1. Homage to Sextus Propertius VI (2:27): MP3
  2. Homage to Sextus Propertius VIII (2:42): MP3
  3. Canto 1 (5:32): MP3
  4. Canto 45 (2:46): MP3
  5. Confucian Ode 98 "He waited me by our gate-screen" (0:44): MP3
  6. Confusion Ode 105 "La Madone des Wagon-Lits" (1:00): MP3
  7. Confusion Ode 57 "Epithalium (Sidney’s Sister)" (1:51): MP3
  8. Confucian Ode 208 "Cl-ang, cl-ang go the bells" (0:55): MP3
  9. Canto 49 [Not included in broadcast] (3:31): MP3

The Bayrischer Rundfunk Recordings, recorded at Schloss Brunnenburg, Tirolo di Merano, Italy, December 1959

  1. Impressions of François-Marie Arouet (de Voltaire), I (“Phyllidula and the Spoils of Gouvernet”) [315] (0:45): MP3
  2. Impressions, II (“To Madame du Châtelet”) [316] (1:21): MP3
  3. Impressions, III (“To Madame Lullin”) [317] (0:39): MP3
  4. Impressions, III (“To Madame Lullin,” German translation) [317] (0:46): MP3
  5. “Der Wirbel” (German trans. of “Phanopoeia, I”) [565] (0:45): MP3
  6. “Es starben” (German trans. of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, I, V”) [552] (0:40): MP3
  7. Unedited tapes of the 1959 Brunnenburg recordings: include tracks 1-6 above, as well as Pound reading the German trans. of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, I, I and dialogue between Pound, Eva Hesse, and Mike O’Donnell. (17:31): MP3

Recorded by Eva Hesse and Mike O’Donnell for the Bayrischer Rundfunk. Used by permission of Eva Hesse.

The Spoleto Readings

Recorded in Spoleto, Italy, summer 1967

  1. Canto III ("I sat on Dogana's steps") [11-12] (2:55): MP3
  2. Canto XVI ("And before hell mouth") [68-75] (13:06): MP3
  3. Canto XLIX ("For the seven lakes ...") [244-45] (3:04): MP3
  4. Canto LXXXI ("Zeus lies in Ceres' bosom") (First Reading) [537-52] (9:56): MP3
  5. Canto LXXXI (Second Reading) [537-52] (10:07): MP3
  6. Canto XCII ("And from this mount were blown" [638-642] (6:36): MP3
  7. Canto CVI ("And was her daughter like that") [772-775] (6:24): MP3
  8. From Canto CXV ("The scientists are in terror") [814] (1:10): MP3

"Canto III" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 41.

The Confucian Odes

Recorded in Spoleto, Italy, summer 1970 (?)

  1. Hid! Hid! [755] (0:47): MP3
  2. O omen tree (0:40): MP3
  3. Kylin's foot (0:22): MP3
  4. In fleecy coats [763] (0:41): MP3
  5. Lies a dead deer [765] (0:35): MP3
  6. Dry grass, in vale [792] (0:23): MP3
  7. Alikter-Ole Brer Rabbit watchin' his feet [792]: MP3
  8. Hep-Cat Chung [795] (0:45): MP3
  9. On comes her car [807] (1:07): MP3
  10. Garden peach [810] (0:45): MP3
  11. I climb the knoll [810] (0:52): MP3
  12. RATS [812] (1:00): MP3
  13. Lonely pear tree [817] (0:25): MP3
  14. Chariots, rank on rank [819] (0:37): MP3
  15. What! No clothes? [823] (0:37): MP3
  16. Lord of the Light's axe [860] (0:35): MP3
  17. Yaller bird [861] (0:53): MP3
  18. Heaven's worry [872] (1:51): MP3
  19. Let the Great Cart alone [885] (0:29): MP3
  20. The year puts on her shining robe [894] (1:05): MP3
  21. Flies, blue flies on a fence rail [898] (0:32): MP3
  22. Folk worn out [936] (2:10): MP3
  23. Show of respect [941] (6:17): MP3
  24. Compassionate heaven [962] (1:37): MP3
  25. Thick, all in mass [986] (1:23): MP3

Please note that the bracketed page numbers for the Confucian Odes are keyed to page numbers in Library of America's Poems & Translations. Confucian Odes ©1970 by Olga Rudge.

An Angle, Recorded in Venice, ca. 1970 or 1971

  1. Canto XVII [From "A boat came" [77] through "In the gloom" (78)](1:40): MP3
  2. Canto XXV [From "side toward the pizza" to "finish said canvas"  (119)] (1:19): MP3
  3. Canto XXVI [Three segments: from "And that year" (123) through "beards of those greeks" (124); from "To the Marquis" through Carpathio/pictore (127); from "And I came here" through "taking light in the darkness" (121)] (4:32): MP3

Recorded by Santomaso for the Erker-Galerie, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Miscellaneous Recordings, San Ambrogio and Venice, 1962-1972

  1. Redondillas [LOA, 175-182] (20:31): MP3
  2. from Canto LXXX (from "Nenni, Nenni" [515] through "the nutriment" [519]) (8:38): MP3
  3. From Canto LXXXVIII (from "It was Saturday" [597] through "The Major done told them" [602]) (10:05): MP3
  4. Canto XCIII ("A man's paradise is his good nature" [643-652]) (17:32): MP3
  5. From Canto XCVI (from "Kredemon" [671] through "oikonomia" [680]) (20:05): MP3
  6. from Canto CXI (from "Cold mermaid" through "Rothar" [803]) (1:49): MP3
  7. from Canto CXII [804-805] (2:36): MP3
  8. Addendum for C [818-19] (4:11): MP3
  9. Now sun rises in Ram sign [820] (1:00): MP3
  10. Dante Speech (1965) with readings from T.S. Eliot and Robert Lowell (6:04): MP3
  11. Dante Inferno XV — “Bruno Latini” — tr. Lowell (1964-Rapallo) (3:02): MP3

The readings were recorded by Olga Rudge from 1962-1972 and remastered under her supervision by Robert Hughes in the fall of 1985. They are available through the assistance of Robert Hughes and by courtesy of Siegfried Walter de Rachewiltz. Special thanks to Richard Sieburth.


Also of Interest:

Ezra Pound on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. Except as indicated above, all rights to this recorded material belong to, and are © 2006 by, the heirs of Ezra Pound, Mary de Rachewiltz and Omar S. Pound, and New Directions Publishing Corp, agent for the heirs. All recordings on this page are used with permission of the heirs and New Directions Publishing Corp. Distributed by PennSound.