Ezra Pound
(1885–1972)

More than any other poet, Ezra Pound was responsible for the dramatic changes that occurred in American poetry during the Modern Age. Urging writers to "make it new" Pound influenced many poets of his day to discard the forms, techniques, and ideas of the past and to experiment with new approaches to writing poetry.

Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, and grew up in Philadelphia. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania and at Hamilton College, he traveled to Europe where he spent most of his life. Settling in London and later moving to Paris, he became a vital part of the growing Modernist movement. He influenced the work of the noted Irish poet William Butler Yeats and that of many American writers, including T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, H. D., Marianne Moore, and Ernest Hemmingway. He was also responsible for the development of Imagism, a literary movement that included Williams, H. D., and Moore.

Despite Pound's preoccupation with originality and inventiveness, his poetry reflects a deep interest in the past. In his early work, he often drew upon the poetry of ancient cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, and Provencal French. His dense, complex poems tend to be filled with literary and historical allusions. Often his poems are difficult to understand, because they are void of explanations or generalizations.

After 1920, Pound focused his efforts on writing "The Cantos", a long poetic sequence in which he expressed his beliefs, reflected upon history and politics, and alluded to a variety of foreign languages and literatures. He eventually produced 116 cantos, which are widely varied in quality.

In 1925, Pound settled in Italy. During World War II, he was an outspoken supporter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, mistakenly believing that a county governed by a powerful dictator was the most conducive environment for the creation of art. In 1934, Pound was indicted by the American government for treason, and a year later he was arrested by American troops and imprisoned. After being flown back to the United States in 1945, he was judged to be psychologically unfit to stand trial and was confined to a hospital for the criminally insane. He remained there until 1958, when he was released largely because of the efforts of his friends in the literary community. After his release he returned to Italy, where he spent the remainder of his life.

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