Ezra Pound's Meters and Rhythms

Author(s): William McNaughton

Source: PMLA, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Mar., 1963), pp. 136-146
Published by: Modern Language Association
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 EZRA POUND'S
BY WILLIAM MCNAUGHTON
EZRA POUND himselfemphasizessome-
what his work on the element of meter.'
T. S. Eliot wrote of Pound's importance in
prosodyto youngerpoets that "there is no one
else to study."2Yet of all the criticalattention
which Pound's poetry has received in recent
years, not one piece analyzes this fundamental
aspect of his work.3We have almost uniquely
Pound's criticalpronouncementsand the verse
iteselfto lead us to an understanding.
Three statementsby Pound offerus the most
convenientoutline accordingto which we may
analyze his versificationand its development.
The statementsimply his intentionat three
differentpersonal moments and indicate his
developmentthroughfortyyears of practice.
These statementsare: 1) "To break thepentam-
eter, that was the firstheave" ;4 2) "Poetry
atrophieswhen it gets too far frommusic";5 3)
"Metre is the articulationofthe total sound of a
poem."6 Each formulationwas arrivedat after
the poet had been workingforseveral years on
the specificprobleminvolved.
"To Break the Pentameter"
The urge to break the pentametermanifested
itselfin Pound's firstbook7and derivedfromthe
desireto say somethingnew and the conviction
that "quand la formen'est pas nouvelle,le fond
ne l'est non plus."8 The poet explained much
later,"I stillthinkthe best mechanism forbreak-
and literaryidiomis a differ-
ing up the stiffness
ent metre,the god damn iambic magnetizescer-
tain verbal sequences."9
Pound'sformulations. WilliamCarlos Williams
spoke of "poetic anarchy" in A Lume Spento.
Pound responded, "Sometimes I use rules of
Spanish,Anglo-Saxonand Greekmetricthat are
not commonin the English of Milton's or Miss
Austen's day."'0 Pound later compressedthis
idea into the propagandistslogan,"As regarding
rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the
musical phrase, not in sequence of a metro-
nome,"'1and shiftedits emphasisfromstrictly
prosodicpracticesto musical ones; yet in 1913
he was again advising, "Let the candidate fill
hismindwiththefinestcadenceshe can discover,
preferablyin a foreignlanguage so that the
meaningofthe wordsmaybe less likelyto divert
his attentionfromthe movement.'"12
Specificeffects:Basinio of Parma. His break
away from the accepted metrical convention
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METERS AND RHYTHMS
did indeed enable Pound to introducenew qual-
ities of movementinto Englishverse.We do not
knowwhetherhe was composingfroma mindhe
had filledwith"the finestcadences,"or whether
as Basinio of Parma he had a specificclassic
prototypebefore him,'3but some of Pound's
finesteffectsmay be analyzedas Greekprosody.
"Eyes, dreams,lips,and thenightgoes"'4reduces
to fivefeet,as the usual Englishline. But four
of the words are trisemes,lengtheningby half
like the dotted note in music. Such an effectof
syncope15 makes the wordsvibrateon the mem-
ory. (Anapests are admittedto iambic lines in
Greekexceptin thelast foot,whichfrequentsub-
stitutionbears the name "cyclic anapest.")
"In the gloom, the gold gathers the light
againstit" also reducesto fivefeet,witha two-
syllable anacrusis or upbeat and the trochaic
1 More of Pound's publishedwritingon technical matters
deals withmetricthanwithany otherproblem.He concludes
theprimerABC ofReading(Norfolk,Conn.: New Directions,
n.d.; hereaftercited ABC) with a "Treatise on Metre," of
whichhe giveshis ownsummary:"LISTEN to the sound it
makes." Equal emphasiswith meteris probablyshared in
Pound's ownpoeticsonlyby Gourmont'sprinciple."Rien ne
pousse a la concisioncommel'abondance des idWes."Quoted
in Make It New (London: Faber, 1934), p. 328; hereafter
citedMIN.
2 Quoted in Hugh Kenner, The Poetry of Ezra Pound
(Norfolk:New Directions,n.d.), p. 109.
3 "That dimensionof the Personaecollectioncomeswithin
the competenceneither of the present commentatornor
(fortunately)of the presentbook," Kenner. J. J. Espey's
Esra Pound's Mauberley(Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1955)
accuratelyand sensitivelyanalyzesthemeterand rhythmsof
theMauberleysequence.
' Pound, "Canto LXXXI," Cantos(New York: New Direc-
tions,1948),p. 96.
6ABC, pp. 14, 61.
6 The poet in conversation,1953 or 1954. He said that the
idea was in Kulchur,although"maybe I buried it in that
book." I cannotnowfindthepreciseremarkanywhere,yetit
mightbe inferredfrompp. 92-95, skilfully.See Guide to
Kulchur(London: Faber, 1938).
7 A LumeSpento(Venice:A. Antonini,1908).
8 Quoted MIN, p. 325.
9 Pound, Letters,ed. D. D. Paige (New York: Harcourt,
Brace, 1950),p. 260.
10Pound continuescharacteristically: "I doubt,however,if
you are sufficiently au courantto know just what the poets
and musiciansand paintersare doingwith a good deal that
had masqueradedas law." Letters, p. 4.
11The Imagistmanifestoof 1912. See MIN, p. 335.
12 Poetry,March 1913. See MIN, pp. 336-341.
13 See ABC, p. 48.
14 "Cino,"Personae(New York: NewDirections,1926),p. 6.
15ChristopherSimpson glosses this technical word as
"drivinga note."
136
 WilliamMcNaughton
measure.The quantitativemeasureis perfectly
regular,and accent is used melodicallyin oc-
casional opposition to the meter.16"The light
therealmost solid"'7 formshalf a line of iambic
trimeter(countingin the Greek way), with a
dactyl in the thirdplace. Pound's very famous
line "What thou lovestwellis thytrueheritage"
(Canto LXXXI) plays its accentual rhythmoff
against the quantitativemeter: the accents all
fall on shortsyllables.The meterof the line is
regulariambic,witha spondee,and the tribrach
in the last place.
How welldid the moreliberalmediumassume
a traditionalpoetic function?A distinctionthat
the poets have traditionallysoughtis to approxi-
mate in their own tongues Homer's onomato-
poetic 7rapa'tlva 7roXv46Lof8o0Loo
iaXaofo-s (Iliad
I.34). We mayconsidera briefcatalogueofimita-
tionand variation.Virgil:
qualisubi alternoprocurrens
gurgitepontus
nuncruitad terram scopulosque
superiacit unda
spumeusextremamque sinuperfundit harenam,
nuncrapidusretroatqueaesturevoluta resorbens
soxafugitlitusquevado labenterelinquit...
(Aeneid,xi.624-628)
Gavin Douglas:
Lykeas theflowand sey,wythfludisrude
Nowruschisto thelandas it warwode,
Andon theskelleisat thecostisbay
Vpswakis fastthefomywallisgray,
Andwythhisjawpiscoverisin and out
The farsandisourthebayabout;
Nowwythswyft fardgoisebbandfastabak,
That withhisbulrandjaschisand outswak
Wythhimhe sowkisand drawismonystane,
Andlevisthestrandis schaldandsandisplane.'8
Browning:
Andwhenwavebrokeand overswarmed, and,sucked
To boundsback,multitudinously
ceased... 19
Yeats:
Whopacedin theeve by thenetson thepebbly
shore.20
Shakespearewrote"multitudinousseas incarna-
dine," but that rathermore suggeststhe huge,
slow-breathing movementof the sea, if it be in-
tended at all for marine onomatopoeia. Yet
Shakespearealso discovered
Themurmuring surge
That on theunnumber'didlepebbleschafes
(Lear,iv.vi.20-21)
Pound's linesrun
theimaginary
Auditionofthephantasmalsea-surge
("HughSelwynMauberley," Personae, p. 202)
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137
Pound commentson his own linesas "cross cut"
and says theyare "totallydifferent, and a differ-
entmovementofthewater,and inferior."'2'
The standard which Pound was trying to
break, a standarddeterminedby the singleele-
mentof accent,did not comeinto Englishverse-
writinguntil fairlylate, one supposes shortly
after the "bump" began to assert its pre-emi-
nence in musical execution.Musicians for 150
years after1750 played the musicof J. S. Bach
and his predecessorswithtotal disregardforthe
conventionsof its redaction,in spite of ample
contemporary explanationof these conventions,
viz., the writingsof Quantz. J. S. Bach and his
predecessorsdistinguishedmainnotesfrompass-
ing notes by lengtheningthe main note. As per
GiulioCaccini:
Written: Played:22
RenaissanceEurope and ElizabethanEngland
wereveryconsciousofthe practicesofthe classi-
cal poets.Shakespearemusthave been at least as
acutely aware of the quantity of words as of
theiraccent.
Andsucha floodofgreatness
fellonyou
(I HenryIV v.i.48)
An ifwelive,we liveto treadon kings;
Ifdie,bravedeath,whenprinces diewithus!
(1 HenryIV v.ii.86-87)
The tideofbloodin me
Hathproudly flowedin vanitytillnow:
Nowdothit turnand ebbbackto thesea,
Whereitshallminglewiththestateoffloods
Andflowhenceforthinformal majesty.
(2 HenryIV v.ii.129-133)
I havelongdream'dofsucha kindofman,
so old and so profane
So surfeit-swell'd,
(2 HenryIV v.ii.53-54)
16 "Rememberthe SWAT muststrainagainsttheduration
now and again, to maintain the tension," Letters,p. 262.
17 "Canto 93," Section: Rock-Drill85-95 de los Cantares
(Milano: Vanni Scheiwiller,1955), p. 88.
18 PoeticalWorks(Edinburgh,1874), iv, 57.
19 "Aristophanes'Apology,"Poems (Boston,1895), p. 629.
20 "The MeditationoftheOld Fisherman,"Collected
Poems
(New York: Macmillan,1956),p. 21.
21 Letters,
pp. 274-275. Pound giveshis owninterpretation
of the originalHomericeffect:"the turnofthe wave and the
scutterofrecedingpebbles."
22 ArnoldDolmetsch,The Interpretation oftheMusic ofthe
XVII & XVIII Centuries(London: Oxford Univ. Press,
1946),p. 71.
138 Ezra Pound'sMetersand Rhythms

In English the accent frequentlycoincideswith und falscheReime, alles gebrauchen,wie es mir

the quantity,sometimesabsolutely and some- kame und bequem ware; aber ich wulrdeauf die
timeswith the elisionscustomaryto the spoken Hauptsache losgehenund so guteDinge zu sagen
language.It seemsalmostso elementarythatone suchen,daI3jedergereiztwerdensollte,es zu lesen
feelssillysayingthat quantityin Englishshows und auswendigzu lernen."28
up differently than in Greekbecause of different Two of Pound's own criticalremarksprobably
spellingpractices. contributedsomewhatto an excess of licensein
Considerationof quantityis necessaryin the the reaction.When Pound wrote,"Christopher
analysis of Anglo-Saxonversification.Quantity Simpson,1655,is muchconcernedwithphysical
was importantto determinethe Anglo-Saxon means of gettinga regularbeat.... his date is
arsis,and Anglo-Saxonpoets varied quantityto interesting. . . The movementtowardregularity
"resolvethe stress."Analogiesbetweenthe four- in verse ... ,29 he did not take intoaccountthe
stressAnglo-Saxonlineand thedramaticverseof rhythmicconstantof the oldermusic,whichwas
Shakespearecan deriveonlyfroma "good ear"23 the lengthof adjacent sounds. His citation of
and the "genius" oflanguage.Miltoncould have ArnoldDolmetsch'sadvice, "Mark not the beat
learned by a study of Italian the elisionwith too much" (p. 153), diminishesin application
whichhe resolveshis "irregularities."24 when we examinethe originaltext. The advice
Everyversifier's debtto Pound is forhis "origi- Dolmetsch gives, or transmits, is actually:
nal practicalexample."Whentheorizing fromhis [Viol players]must take care, in lively move-
own practice,he is clear always whennot inten- ments,not to markthe beat too much,so as not
tionallycryptic;but in explainingthediscoveries to departfromthespiritoftheinstrument, which
made by PierreJean Rousselot's "phonoscope" willnot be treatedin the mannerofthe Violin,of
at the Collegede France,Pound made one serious whichthe purposeis to animate,whilstthat of
error. He claimed that the syllable "in" of the Treble Viol is to flatter."30Thus, having
phraseslike "in the wind" is not long and that encouragedhis contemporaries and successorsto
the phonoscoperecordedthe syllableas not long. writeonly an innerpart, Pound was dissatisfied
Yet our ear confirms the judgmentthat the syl- many years later with the effects,and would
lable is long.The vowelof"the" disappears,or is probablybe dissatisfiedtodayifhis readingwere
so far suppressedthat it entersthe ear almost current: "The definitevacancy," he wrote to
preciselyas the extra breath expelled in pro- Mary Barnardin 1934, "is in melodicvalidity"
nouncingtheta: ev &' KpanTao,TOv7rarpos 'EXXtrlwcoV(Letters,p. 260). We shall see that these miscon-
TpaEL5. ... The machinewasunableto discrimi- structionsaffectedalso Pound's technique in
nate between irrationaliambs and cyclic ana- writingversesto sing,to whichhe beganseriously
pests, but we should have expected a greater to apply himselfat about thistime(1918).
subtletyof Pound.
The real purportofPound's movementagainst Poetryand Music
the pentameterwas to shiftsomeattentionaway Pound also addressedhimselfearnestlyto "an
fromaccent to quantityas a functionin verbal attemptto revivetheart ofsong." He workedat
music,and to classical metersin theirdiversity. 23 "The question of the relativedurationof syllableshas
He was able, at least in his own verse,greatlyto never been neglectedby men with susceptibleears." ABC,
enlargethe repertoireof poeticrhythmsin Eng- p. 56.
lish25and to exploita varietyof conversational 24 Milton, writingat the Puritanicdistance fromancient
and quasi-conversational Pound him- myth,createda curiousblendofmythologies.Dante invokes
rhythms.26
selfcame to deridethe influencethat his princi- pagan enlightenment "rathertactfullyto rebukethe Church,
a way thatwillnotstirup therabble." See Pound,Spiritof
ple "as regardingrhythm'"had on the diluters: in Romance(London: J. M. Dent, 1910),p. 125.
"Vers librehas become as prolixand verboseas 25 Eliot observedthat a man who introducesnew rhythms
any oftheflaccidvarietiesofversethatpreceded to thelanguage"enlargesour sensibilities."
it.... At times I can finda marked metrein 26It is necessaryto maintainthedissociationofverse"be it
'vers libres,' as stale and hackneyed as any rouned,red or songe" (Hous of Fame. I.722). Pound calls it
"melopoeia ... to sing; to chant or intone; and to speak."
pseudo-Swinburnian, at timesthewritersseemto ABC, p. 61. The Lustra poems,in whichPound catches so
followno musical structurewhatever."27 Pound effectively various tones of voice, appear in Personae,pp.
seldom attemptedto writewithoutat least the 81-123.
27 MIN, p. 336.
controlsuggestedin Goethe'sstatement:"Ware 28 Eckermann, Gesprdchemit Goetle (Zurich: Artemis-
ich nochjung und verwegengenug,so wiirdeich Verlag,1948), ii, 443.
absichtlichgegen alle solche technischeGrillen 29Pavannesand Divisions(New York: Knopf,1918),p. 155.
verstol3en, ich wuirdeAlliterationen,
Assonanzen 30Dolmetsch,p. 17.

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 WilliamMcNVaughton
the revival in two ways: 1) in translationand
imitationof the finestlyricsof otherlanguages;
2) by compositionof music.
Translationand imitation.Dante's treatiseDe
Vulgari Eloquentia led Pound firstto serious
study of troubadourpoetry and the union of
wordswithmusic.3'Pound workedback to trans-
lation of the troubadoursthroughCavalcanti's
ballate, of which he published translationsin
1910.32In 1918he publisheda seriesofvariations
of, and descants on, troubadourthemes.33Pre-
vented then fromreading by eye trouble, he
renderedinto English certainpoems of Arnaut
Daniel, whichhe had memorizedwhilestudying
ProvengalwithShepard.34 In 1931he publisheda
versionof Cavalcanti's famouscanzone "Donna
mi priegha,"in an essay dated "1910/1931."35A
still more skilfulrenditionof this canzone ap-
peared in Pound's Canto XXXVI, published in
1934.36 His latest effortsin song occur in the
translations The Confucian A nthology37 and
Sophocles' Womenof Trachis.38
Musical composition. "Part of whata musician
HAS to know," wrotePound, "is employedin
writing with words" (ABC, p. 197). Pound
workedto learnthispart ofhis craftas an actual
practioner,not as a dilettante.He studied and
practicedmusicalcompositionforvariousperiods
beginningabout 1907. He wrote an opera Le
Testamentaround Villon's words, an opera
Cavalcanti around Cavalcanti's and Sordello's.
He collaboratedwithWalterRummelto set cer-
tain troubadoursongs, published musical criti-
cism under the name "William Atheling,"39 or-
ganized the Rapallo concerts,and associated
withTibor Serlyand GerhartMunch. In Who's
Who 1962, he describes himselfas "American
poet and composer."
The standard to which Pound consistently
adheredis that the musicshould throwlighton
the words, not distort the words for musical
effects.He could have inferred thestandardfrom
Dante's marvellouslines, in which in "buon"
and "buon" we hearthe citarafollow:"E come a
buon cantorbuon citarista/ Fa seguitarlo guizzo
de la corda,/ In che piiudi piacer lo canto ac-
quista . . . " (Paradiso, Canto xx.142-144).
Formulations.Of the knowledgewhichPound
gained fromtheseinvestigations, such as can be
formulatedmay be summarizedalmost in two
statements:1) Pound concludedthe"Treatise on
AMetre":"Beyond which we will never recover
the art ofwritingtobesunguntilwe beginto pay
some attention to the sequence, or scale, of
vowelsin theline,and of the vowelsterminating
the groupof lines in a series" (ABC, p. 206). 2)
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139
Concerningthe settingof troubadourpoems,he
wrote:"Try to interpretTroubadourtuneon the
hypothesisthat the line (of verse) is the bar and
can be graphedto best advantage as a (that is
one single) bar."40
Rhythmic vitality.Pound failedin his "Langue
d'Oc'"41 translationsand descants to give the
songs a vital beat. He was freshfroman enthu-
siasmforfreeverseand fromthesuccessfulLustra
applicationsof it. He may also have too much
admired the intricatedivisions withinthe line
that ArnautDaniel imposedby internalrhyme.
The poemsfallapart overlineslike "I care not a
glove," and "She by one touch/ Reftmeaway; /
So dothbewilderme/ I can not say mysay / Nor
my desire."
Daniel wrotethe poem "L'aura amara" in the
same strophicpatternas Campion's "Since She,
Euen She." But in Daniel's poem, the internal
rhymesbreakout as follows:
L'aura amara
Fals bruoills
brancutz
Clarzir
Queldoutzespeissaab fuoills,
Els letz
Becs
Dels auzelsramencs
Ten balpse mutz,
Pars
E non-pars;
Per qu'eu m'esfortz
De fare dir
Plazers
A mainsperliei
Que m'a viratbas d'aut,
Don temmorir
Silsafansno m'asoma.42
Campion's musicfitsthe Daniel poem perfectly,
31 WilliamPierceShepard"gave" Pound an extracurricular
coursein the Provengalpoetsat Hamilton.
32 The Sonnetsand Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti(London,
1912).
83"Homage a la Langue d'Or [sic],"LittleReview,v, i (May
1918), 19-24.
a4So doing,he broke an oath taken to himself"never to
attempttranslationagain." The versionswerepublishedin an
essay on Daniel in Instigations(New York, 1920), pp. 286-
320.
35 GuidoCavalcanti:Rime(Genova, 1931).
3BElevenNew Cantos,XXXI-XLI (NewYork,1934).
37 The Classic AnthologyDefinedbyConfucius(Cambridge:
Harvard Univ. Press,1954).
38 New York: New Directions,1957.HereaftercitedWOT.
39 "Music," New Age,running almosteverytwoweeksfrom
6 Dec. 1917-21April1921.
40 Kulchur,p. 199.
41 See Personae,pp. 171-177.
d2 MIN, pp. 67-73. Cf. Carl Appel,ProvenzalischeChresto-
mathki(Leipzig,1895),p. 11.
140 Ezra Pound'sMetersand Rhythms
withtherepetitionof Campion'slast twolinesas
indicatedby the score:
Since she, eu'n she, forwhomI liu'd,
Sweet she by Fate fromme is torne,
Why am not I of sence depriu'd,
ForgettingI was ever borne?
Why should I languish,hatinglight?
Betterto sleep an endlessenight.4
Pound may weave nearlyas intricatea rhymein
some Langue d'Oc poems,but the poems fallflat
because he does not build up an effectivebeat:
When the springtimeis sweet
And the birdsrepeat
Their new song in the leaves.
'Tis meet
A man go wherehe will.
But fromwheremy heartis set
No messageI get;
My heartall wakes and grieves;
Defeat
Or luck,I musthave myfill.(p. 173)
(And Pound has even attempted to improve
metricallyon Guillemde Peitau's original,which
runs "Ab la dolchordel tempsnovel / Foillo li
bosc,e li aucel / Chantonchascusenlorlati," and
so on, regularly.)44
Schemes have been carried out in English,
thoughby poetsworkingverycloseto theirmusi-
cal inspiration,which rhymewith as intricate
purpose as the Provengal.Perhaps we need the
music to "get" it. One song by Henry Lawes is
conventionallydivided:
Tis true(fairCelia) thatby theeI live,
That everykisse,and everyfondembrace
Formsa new soul withinme, and doth give
A balsam to the wound made by thyface:
Yet stillmethinksI miss
That bliss
That loversdare not name
And only thendescribedis
When flamedoth meet withflame.45
We could as well divide it (as the music very
clearly does):
Tis true (fairCelia) that by thee
I live,
That everykisse
And everyfondembrace
Formsa new soul withinme,
And doth give
A balsam to thewoundmade by thyface:
Yet stillmethinksI miss
That bliss
That loversdare not name,
And only thendescribedis
When flame
Doth meet withflame.
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We can findinternalrhymeused freelyby T'ao
Ch'ien to strainagainst the beat, but always in
subtlesubordinationto the basic pattern:
x KM
o~
Al
a^'3i
.i~~~ R
, 9L jt
(Slashes in the phonetic transcriptionindicate
theinternalrhymes):
dz'ai: sjik miuannammRu:,
tangnienkjng: mjwei-/ dz'ian:.
liu-k'ungkjei-/ jj^u: / nzen,
dz'i-mian:!
Xjpngk'a^ai:
t's'iu-en
siukzien/ tsiangnguo/ ka-,
i: mi'an:.
k'iei:d'uo/dz'^ang
tieu:lung-/ xu^ans`en/ tsiet,
liengpiungsung-/ iwozian:.
yan ts"'au p'jie / Xwang yiei,
d'i- jwiR/xan: Azien j,wJ4n:.
ZiA:i: 8'i- /d'iang: ung,
isu nzlain / piau- b'isu-piwii:.
tsiek lji: kjwi- / t'ung tsi-,
siwo: pau: g'iwo: n~ai: ts'ian: 4
The poemkeeps basicallyto a strictfive-syllable
beat, and this beat is punctuatedby the basic
rhymescheme:x a x a / x a x a / x b x b / x a.
Rhyme "b" is probablyused in the thirdqua-
trainto anticipatetheclose.
Rhythmic freedom.The Imagistidea of "musi-
cal phrase" was too vague to sustaina technique
43"Fourth Book of Ayres," Third and FourthBooke of
Ayres (London, circa 1613), no. xvi. See also Works,ed.
Percival Vivian (London: OxfordUniv. Press, 1909), p. 183.
44 AnthologyoftheProvenqalTroubadours,ed. R. T. Hill and
T. G. Bergin (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1941), p. 9.
4 Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1653-58), Pt. i, p. 29
[misnumbered 27].
46T'ao Yuian-ming, Shih, ed. Fu Tung-hwa(Hong Kong:
Hsiang kang Shih Hsueh Shu Tien Yin Hang, n.d.), p. 1.
Concerningthe reconstruction of "AncientChinese" and the
indicationoftones,see BernhardKarlgren,GrammataSerica
Recensa(Stockholm,1957),esp. pp. 4-5.
 WiUiamMcNaughton 141

forsong.In statementtheidea failedsignificantly Sad soul, untilthe sea-wave washes

to dissociate between instrumentalmusic and The rimo' the sun tomorrow
vocal music,and the practice whichdeveloped In easternsky.
fromit did not achieve sufficientlydefinitean
But wiltthou cure thineheart:
articulation.No traditionofsimultaneousmusic,
Of love and all its smart,
dance, and poetryhad flourishedforcenturiesin Then die, dear, die;
WesternEurope. 'T is deeper,sweeter,
Freedomof certainkindsis not inimicalto the Than on a rose-bankto lie dreaming
effectivesong. Homersings: With foldedeye;
vwrap eIrELT avrosl /3XosEXe7rEVKES
&ILELLs
And therealone, amid the beaming
Of Love's stars,thou'ltmeether
3a'XX''ald' Oayetat
beh rupatPEKVWV KaLOVrO In easternsky.48
(Iliad, i.51-52) ("Wolfram'sDirge")
And: Beddoes put a musical sigh on "Love's." The
rpw,rOv yap ALV lovra ja3iXeo-r'Gos rapa Aato'v leastsophisticatedof folk-singerswillunderstand
&bL6'V (Iliad, iv.480-481) the principle,but will probablynot use it with
thesame aptitudeforemotionaldefinition.49 And
JohnDonne moves his caesura around in the althoughAuden has deridedthe distributionof
line with as much vitalityand grace as Homer six syllablesover a dozen notes, he should not
does47 object to usage whichsuggestsan Affekt.
Where,likea pillowon a bed, Pound workedhis translationsfromthe Shik
A Pregnant bankeswell'dup, to rest Ching (Classic Anthology Definedby Confucius)
The violetsreclining
head, into very definiterhythms.Pound advised an
Sat we two,oneanothers best. inquisitiveyoungversifierto listen"only to the
Ourhandswerefirmly cimented beats." Whenworkingto translatethetightfour-
With a fastbalme, whichthencedid spring, syllable Chineseline, Pound was also interested
Our eye-beamestwisted,and did thread in the excitementintroducedby equivocal syl-
Our eyes,upon one double string;
So to'entergraftour hands,as yet
lables like "chi-ang." The effectin a sequenceof
Was all the meanes to make us one, monosyllablesdelightedhis ear.
And picturesin our eyes to get But probablythe best indicationof Pound's
Was all our propagation. eventual effectivetechnicaldissociationof sung
As 'twixttwo equal armies,Fate verse and spokenverse comes in his translation
Suspendsuncertainevictorie, of Womenof Trachis,whichincludessectionsin
Our soules, (whichto advance theirstate, each style.
Were gone out,) hung 'twixther and mee. Internalrhyme.Arnaut Daniel uses internal
And if some lover,such as wee, rhyme to emphasize special sound qualities.
Have heard thisdialogueof one,
Cavalcanti uses it to keep the line from"going
Let him stillmarkeus, he shall see
Small change,whenwe'are to bodies gone. heavy" (see MIN, pp. 368-375). Internalrhyme
("The Extasie") can also be used to enforcethecadence,or it may
work to suggest rallentandoor temporubato.Y0
Donne, althoughhe uses bindingdevices which
the Imagists eschewed, really writes "in the 47
I
... it seems even to be supposedby some criticsthat
sequence of the musicalphrase." His poem does Donne did not knowhow to scan. This last suppositionmay
be rejectedat once; whattherewas to knowabout poetrywas
not break down nor sprawl.It does suggestlines knownto Donne. But it seemscertainthat he intentionally
ofmovementbeyondthemetricalframe.Donne's introduceda revolutioninto Englishversification." Edmund
arrangements definethe sound at everymoment. Gosse, quoted by F. E. Schelling, "Elizabethan Lyrical
Beddoes uses anotherkind of variationin his Measures," ElizabethvanLyrics,ed. Schelling(Boston: Ginn,
songs,whichmay be seen in the lines beginning 1895), p. lxvii.
48 Beddoes handlesthe rhymetoo withgreatmusicalskill.
"The rim o' the sun" and "Of Love's stars" He admits one unresolvedrhyme("sky") to his firststanza
below: and uses it in the secondstanza to proceedto his close (die/
If thou wiltease thineheart eye/sky).
49See also Gourmont,"Le Vers Populaire," Esthktiquede
Of love and all its smart, la languefran(aise,ed. R.-L. Wagner(Paris, 1938), pp. 171-
Then sleep,dear, sleep; 186.
And not a sorrow 60 "In tempo rubatoin an Adagio,thelefthand shouldgo on
Hang any tear on youreyelashes; playing in strict time." Mozart's Letters,ed. Eric Blom
Lie stilland deep, (Harmondsworth, Middlesex:Penguin,1956),p. 58.

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142 Ezra Pound'sMetersand Rhythms
Pound foundinternalrhymeagain in the ancient
Chinese Shih Ching songs which he translated,
and the styleradicallyaffectedthe techniqueof
his versification.Often enough the poets who
composedthose old odes, many of whichare in
lines of four syllables,rhymedon the thirdor
penultimatesyllable. When Pound went on to
"english" Sophocles' Womenof Trachis,he at-
temptedto capturesomeofthelyricchorusesin a
modifiedChinesepattern:
KUPRIS bearstrophies away.
Kronos'Son,Dis and Poseidon,
Thereis no one
shakerunshaken.
Intodustgo theyall.
NeathHer theymust
giveway.
TWO godsfought fora girl,
Battleand dust!
Mightofa Riverwithhorns
crashing.
Fourbullstogether
Shallno mantether,
Akheloosneither,
lashingthrough Oneudai.
Kuprisdecides
To whombrides
fall.
Whoshallhaveher?
To staveherandproveher,
Cowlesscalflost,
Hurtledaway,
prizedfora day?
(WOT,pp. 23-24).
Closingrhythms. Shelley,writingwitha work-
man's ease ofhis craft,definedthefunctionofthe
regular plan of metric "which would include
underdeterminateformsthe varied pauses" of a
style.5"Pound once emergedfromhis door in
Washington,the rapid beating of a stripped-
down metronomeaudible behind him. "God
damn it," he said to his visitors,"I've wasted
fortyyears listeningto the clicks that thing
makes, instead of the pauses between the
clicks."52
Pound had serious trouble with his middle
closes in Langue d'Oc: "Defeat / Or luck,I must
have myfill";" . . . thatLove goes out,Leaving
me no powerto hold him"; " . . . Wantingonly
what/ No man can get or has got." (We are able
in Donne to hearthemiddlecloseswhereverthey
should occur: "Might thence a new concoction
take / And part far purer than they came";
" . . . For th'anatomiesof whichwe grow/ Are
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souls whomno change can invade"-"The Ex-
tasie.")
Yet in theClassicAnthology Pound is verysure
of his closingrhythms.In the poem beginning
"Pheasant cock flieson easy wing" (p. 15), the
meteris regularfor the firstthree stanzas; the
sixthand tenthlinesare used likemonometer in a
Greeksong.The poet identifies his closeby alter-
ing that meter in "conscienceless" and "not
covets."It preparestheauditor'sear and thereby
bringsthe ode to a moresatisfyingconclusion.63
Such anticipationof the close is an essential
device in the art of song writing.ArnautDaniel
variesthefifthand eighthlinesto markthe close
ofthestanza in "Lancan son passat li giure":
Sus el entrecimon poma,
La florse li chaneil clarquil
M'enseignon c'ab joi m'apoigna,
Sai al tempsdel'intran d'april."
(The troubadoursachievedthefinalcloseoftheir
longersongs with codas.) The Greek poets, in
assemblingsystemsof trochaic,iambic, or ana-
pesticmetersacatalectic,closedthesystemwitha
catalecticline: the catalexiswas used to indicate
the close,to solve the song.In the strophein the
Frogs beginning raTcra/Lv irpos&v6p's 'fo-, Aris-
tophanesendswiththelines:
lrbt7rar6tas
juoQ(ZbcoiP
roVs xopoVS roVS7rpoYOloVS.
(11.533-549)
Campion indicatesthe approach of his close in
"Fain would I mylove disclose" by varyingthe
meteras Daniel did:
Wisesheis,and needsmustknow
Allth'attempts thatbeautymoves:
Fayresheis,and honoured so
That she,sure,hathtryedsomeloves.
If withloveI temptherthen,
T'is butherduetobedesired:
Whatwouldwomenthinkofmen
If their werenotadmired?
deserts
Total Sound of the Poem
Pound has, as a criticremarked,devotedmost
51 "A Defenceof Poetry,"Prose Works,ed. H. B. Foreman
(London: 1880),iii, 107.
52 Anecdotetoldby Rudd Fleming.
63 Anotherindicationof the translation'smusicalqualities
is to be foundin the excellenceof the terminalsounds: tone
..., moon, pain,... -the use of consonance across the
rhymes.The rhymeswereevidentlyplannedout in advance,
as therhymeswerein ArnautDaniel's songs.
"1U. A. Canello, La Vita e le Operedel TrovatoreArnaldo
Daniello (Halle, 1883),p. 98.
 WilliamMcNaughton
ofhis creativeenergyduringthe past fortyyears
to theCantos;"literaryhistorygivesus fewother
examples" of such total commitment.55 What
then of the work on which Pound has really
stakedhisreputationas a poet?
Groundplan. Pound uses threedifferent tech-
niques ofarticulationto createthelocal tensions
of his Cantos: thereare Italian, American,and
Chineseelementsin his scheme,and each ofthem
may successivelycause the same readerdelight,
consternation, and dismay.A principleof depar-
turefromtheseelementsalso operates,the prin-
ciple of effectivefreeversethat "permitsa poem
to ariseout ofits own rhythm, as [in]Turnerand
Pound at their best."56To such departurewe
owe some of the finestcantos, as XLV ("With
Usura"). A beat actually is moremarkedin the
departures than elsewhere. Pound may also
"depart" to moreconservativeformsfora spe-
cial purpose,as to adapted Anglo-Saxonrhythms
(Canto I) or to imitationof Fitzgerald (Canto
LXXX). "It is just this adaptabilityof metreto
mood," writesEliot, "an adaptabilitydue to an
intensive study of metre, that constitutesan
importantelementin Pound's technique."57The
principlethat holds it all togetheris stated by
Pound as, "metreis the articulationof the total
sound of a poem."
Dante. Pound began to composehis Cantosin a
meterbased, moreorless,on Dante's hendecasyl-
labics. Since the Cantos was at its conceptiona
granddescant on the Divine Comedy,thischoice
of a metricalbase was logical enough. Pound
praised the explanationof Dante's metricgiven
in G. Biagoli's Tractatod'Armoniadi VersoItali-
ano: "The author did not 'lay down rules,' he
merelyobserved that Dante's hendecasyllabics
werecomposedof combinationsof rhythmunits
of variousshapes and sizes and that thesepieces
wereput togetherin linesso as to make,roughly,
elevensyllablesin all."58
Pound developedforthe Cantosa versification
that omitted the rhymesand tends toward a
moreconversationalmovement.Homer's poems
could have been the best after-dinner entertain-
mentin Ionia; Pound aims to recreatethe best
conversationof several epochs in England and
Europe, because he believes,as Yeats said, that
"Nothingaffectsthesepeople exceptour conver-
sation." The fundamentalintent of Pound as
poet is not to teach or to delight,but to move.He
called an early,importantbook Instigations;he
signedthe back of his last installmentof Cantos
with the word 1 (the Americanedition omits
it). Sometimesthe conversationis uninteresting,
sometimesit is very exciting.Pound's skill as a
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143
mimicmaylowerthe tone,but it adds lifeto the
moment:
"an doanyou thinkhe chopan' changeall thetime
stubbornaz a mule,sah,stubborn as a MULE,
gotth'easternidea aboutmoney". . .
thisday Octoberthewhateverth Mr. Coxie
aged91 has mentioned bondsand their
interest
apparentlyas a basisofissue
and Mr SincLewishas not
and Bartokhas leftus
AndMr Beardin hisadmirable condensation
(Mr Chas.Beard)has givenonelineto thecurrency
at aboutpage426 "The Republic"
(CantoLXXXIV, pp. 115-116)
These linesare notexactlyconversation, yetthey
do suggestconversation.And wheretherhythms
of the verse are conversational,there they are
'right'as the formforthe occasion; the rhythms
of the Cantos are then as rightas the rhythms
Homer fittedto his lyre. They fit equally the
"lange Atemdes epischenErzahlers."
Whitman.Pound has pushed to its utmostin
his presentationof "the Adams dynasty"(Can-
tos LXII-LXXI) the second techniqueof metrical
articulationforthe Cantos,whichmay be called
"American" although it is particularlyWhit-
manian. "Whitman," in the words of William
Michael Rossetti,"introducesinto his composi-
tions passages indistinguishablefromordinary
prose."59(We are considering the metricalorgan-
ization of the Cantos' language, and not its
syntax-in syntaxit is, of course,"distinguish-
able.")
But "Out of the mockingbird'sthroat, the
musicalshuttle"maylast becauseit has a musical
structure.When some tune that Whitmanhad
heardat theoperabegan to act on his genius,the
genius began to produce immortalverse. The
otherparts of Leaves are Whitman'srecitativi,
and-except forbrilliantbits and phrases-they
will slide quietlyinto literaryhistory.Whitman
gothisidea fortheformofLeavesfromtheopera,
and the troublewithopera as a formis that the
recitativois notin verse.The languagemovestoo
roughlyfromproseto song; or it may be in pass-
ing the otherway, fromsong to prose,that our
sensibilitiesare dishevelled.
65 M. L. Rosenthal,A Primerof Ezra Pound (New York:
Macmillan,1960),p. 43.
66 W. B. Yeats, OxfordBook ofModernVerse(New York,
1936),p. viii.
67 Ezra Pound, his Metricand Poetry(New York: Knopf,
1917),pp. 7-8.
58 MIN, pp. 370-371.
(New York: Charles Scribner'sSon,
69SomeReminiscences
1906),p. 400.
144 Ezra Pound'sMetersand Rhythms

When Galilei,Corsi, Caccini and Jacopo Peri There should be great national interest in
"invented"the opera,theywereactuallyexperi- Pound's presentationof "the Adams dynasty."
mentingwitha revivalof Greekdrama. But they Yet
(or theirsuccessors)attendedto thesongand did Numbers ofsmallbirdsfromtheshore
not,evidently,perceivethe necessityforkeeping instanttheylighton a ship
up a beat in the non-singingsections.The recita- dropasleepfromexhaustion
tivo is a formaldecadence,and Whitmanshould (CantoLVX, p. 116)
not have imitatedit. To use a predecessor'scom-
promiseas an excuse for not hammeringyour are about the onlylinesin the sectionthat move
own verse into bettershape and more solidity, us immediately,and this may be froma fortui-
whichPound has done in adoptingthis element tous sympathy.Homer's catalogueof the armies
fromWhitman,is not what we expectofa classi- breezesby in comparison(Homer anywayparo-
cal artist.WhenWhitmanactuallywentout and dies the dullnessof his directoryless than 200
heardthe birdssing,the resultsweremuchmore lines later: a&La ri3 ye xcad aiOt7ro-Xot6Tv' 'irovro
interesting: "Soothe! Soothe! Soothe!" in "Out of Iliad iii.143). Pound has providedus with the
thecradle,endlesslyrocking,"is preciseimitation notes of a very eruditeman on Adams' papers;
of bird-song.Whitmanhas foundan effectpar- yetjust to theextentthattheworkfailsto match
ticularto his languageand subject. The secretis his master's definition,it fails as poetry "que
in thediphthongalglide,and the musicaleffect is nichilaliud est quam fictiorethoricamusicaque
posita."I'
about likethis:
Chinese.Later in theCantoswhenPound seems
even more "to be improvisingat sightfroman
unknownGreekmasterpiece,"thereis a principle
of organizationat workwhichretainsour inter-
est,even ifwe do not understandit analytically.
Such an effectwouldbe thedespairoftranslators The precisionsin the later cantos derive more
intoa Continentallanguage. fromthe tension between ideas than between
Pound operated earlierin the Vorticistprin- syllablesor "feet." Pound is movingcloserto the
ciple,"so to concentratethe mindon a particular definition of 'style' as "the absolute subjugation
rhythm,definedplane, or arrangement of colors, of the details of a given workto the dominant
that it becomes more sensitive to all other will; to the centralurgeor impulse";6'he is more
rhythms,definedplanes, etc." For the purposes nearlyrealizingGoethe's maturewish "auf die
of metricalanalysis,this could be the structural Hauptsache losgehen," and he could not have
principleoftheCantos.As a principleit functions done it earlierin thepoem.Pound's studiesofthe
perfectly wellrightup to Canto LXII. The firmer Chineseclassicshave inspiredand sustainedhim
metersof Cantos xvii, xxxvi, xxxix, and XLV in this articulation,and these classics probably
echo across the weaker metersof Cantos xix, gave him the originalidea forthis technique.It
XXXVIII, XLI, and XLVI, and conferon themform fitsin withhis expressedaim as poet "to charge
and validity.The subtlerarticulationsof these words with meaning to the utmost possible
latter cantos would not be possible as poetry degree."62
withoutthe harderarticulationsof xvii, xxxvi, Pound foundin theverbalrelationsof Chinese
XxXIX,and XLV. Yet in theAdamscantos,the a key he had soughtand not foundmanyyears
poet has pushedhis techniquebeyondits durable earlierin Tacitus: Pound imitated Tacitus for
limits. There is no "hardening"in the section, fiveyears,to the "ruin" of his prose,"tryingto
thereis too largea gap fromthelast firmmetrical writeEnglishas Tacitus wroteLatin" (Letters, p.
expression,and our appreciationis confuted: 87) in a search for compression,compactness.
W.A.C.H. Dobson has inventedtheterm"rule of
"TO THE GOVERNOR AND THE COMPANIE
economy"to explainthe compressionin classical
whereon ThomasAdams Chinese. Dobson describesits operationas fol-
19thMarch1628 lows: "One of the most distinctivelinguistic
18thassistant whereofthesaidThomasAdams
(abbreviated) 60 Dante, "De VulgariEloquentia," ii, iv, Le Opere,a cura
MerryMountbecomeBraintree, a plantationnear M. Barbi et al. (Firenze:R. Bemporad& Figlio,1921),p. 341.
Weston's. 61Pound,Gaudier-Brzeska: a Memoir(London: JohnLane,
Capn Wollanston's becameMerrymount." 1916),p. 89.
(CantoLXII, p. 87) 62ABC, p. 36.

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 WilliamMcNaughton
featuresofL[ate] A[rchaic]C[hinese]. . . [is] the
non-obligatoriness oftheuse ofmanyofits gram-
matical devices.... Statementsare made with
the minimumof grammaticalindicationscon-
sistentwith clear statement.... It mightseem
to thoseaccustomedto theobligatorygrammati-
cal indicationsof Indo-Europeanlanguagesthat
such selectivityin theiruse would make foram-
biguityor lack of clarity,but in practisethis is
rarelyso ... "63 Dobson furthernotices of Ar-
chaic Chinese "the metricalflexibility it enjoys
throughthe operationof the rule of economy."64
Pound uses analogousellipsesalso in hisCantosto
achieve metricalflexibility.
"When two propositionsare stated, one after
the other,withoutany qualifyingwords,"writes
H.G. CreelofancientChineseliteraryprose,"the
formeris veryoftena conditionand the lattera
consequence."65 A typicalexampleis the passage
fromtheFilial PietyClassicreading:
Literally, these characters read "On top not
arrogant,high and not precarious."The quali-
fying words have been omitted. A recent
translationrendersit, "When a prince is not
proud and arrogant,he will not incur peril in
spiteofhis highposition."66 Pound minimizeshis
use of qualifyingand connectingwords,phrases,
and paragraphs.And he sticksin such "binding
matter" as thereis, afterthe eliminationof all
superfluities,at theend ofthecanto.He demands
thatthequalificationand connectionoccurin the
reader'smind,withoutunnecessaryverbalassist-
ance. This explainswhatat firstappears to be an
'unorganized'syntax,and it explainsthe tension
and driveofthelatercantos.
Pound uses hisintellectualmaterialin thelater
cantos the way a composeruses thematicma-
terial:he states a basic idea, dropsit, repeatsit,
varies it, restatesit, invertsit, abbreviatesit-
until Pound feelsit may finallyhave delighted
the reader'smemory,or wornout his resistance.
Pound could not otherwisehave controlledand
determinedthe meaningand referenceof mate-
rial fromwhich he had suppressedindicia, ac-
cordingto his own "rule of economy." Yet by
usingthesetechniquesofstatement,elimination,
repetition,variationin analogy to musicalcom-
position,Pound is able lucidlyto accumulateand
disposehisabbreviatedand compressedmaterial.
We perceive in various sections,reasons to
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145
believe that "somethingnew in poetry"is being
made to happen:
King Offaat 6 and 4
Alfred,finally,Athelstan12;
Canute opposingByzantium,20 scads to the dinar,
100 scads to the mark (of accountancy)
Edgar's leather(?) came afterAthelstan
"thon yildenhe gon rere"
that is, guildsinto England,
"And he, thepresident,is trueto his caste
"and that caste," said old Lampman, "the
underworld."67
Pound is assembling his facts in sentences, and
the sentences always end with a perfectly clear
statement, if the reader will watch the stops. The
lines cited above end with one of Pound's themes
or responses forthe canto. The theme occurs else-
where, as:
Some faintconnection
betweencriminality and calamity
lo jorn,Der Tag
thatatleasta fewshouldperceivethis - tan. (p. 29)
and again:
Startedwitha limited(ifnotbydogma,butinpractice)
suffrage of the qualified,
iravoup,y1a now at the top. (p. 30)
And the two lines on "caste" are tied in verbally
with "yilden."
These lines all come early in Canto 97. There
are many other examples of this practice in the
same canto. The sentence beginning "Struck at
Bassora" ends "And that the Senate coined after
Nero . . . / LIBERTAS RESTITUTA" (pp.
20-21). The sentence on Prussian notes and so
on ends: "'Window-dressing' as Bryan admitted
to Kitson" (p. 25).68
13 Late ArchaicChinese(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press,
1959), p. xxvi.
64 EarlyArchaicChinese(Toronto:Univ. ofTorontoPress,
1962), p. xxxi.
65 LiteraryChinesebytheInductiveMethod(Chicago: Univ.
of Chicago Press,1948), i, 95.
61The Hsiao Ching,trans.SisterMary Lelia Makra (New
York: St. John'sUniv. Press,1961),p. 7.
67 "Canto 97," Thrones:96-109 de los Cantares(Milano:
Vanni Scheiwiller,1959),p. 22.
68 Pound comments on his principleforthe organizationof
the introductoryclauses in these sentences,which is his
principleforthehandlingofdetailgenerallyin the Cantos,by
remarking that "pointsdefinea periphery."Sometimes,how-
ever,pointsmay definea peripheryas the blindmendefined
theelephant.Furthermore, in the same sectionof the poem
wherehe assists us with "echoes, apparatus, text,transla-
tions, French version, Latin version, footnotesand...
scholarlyreverberation,"the poet advises us to "get rid of
paraphernalia."See Kenner,Gnomon(New York: McDowell-
Obolensky,1958), p. 288. Cf. "Canto 91," Rock-Drill,D. 75.
146 Ezra Pound'sMetersand Rhythms

"Obscurity"disappearsfromthe Cantosifone to investthe timeis his individualconcern.Cer-

has studied enough Chinese, not because one tain pleasures are to be had even froma first
recognizesallusions, which are explained; not reading, and they are largely the result of
because one understandsquotations,whichare Pound's metricalvirtuosity.
translatedalways,if elsewhere;but because one
graspsthe style.Anotherapproachis to read the YALE UNIVERSITY
poem slowly.Whetheror not the readerchooses New Haven, Conn.

IN THIS WORK, whenit shall be foundthat muchis omitted,let it

not be forgottenthat much likewiseis performed;and thoughno
book was eversparedout oftendernessto theauthor,and theworld
is littlesolicitousto knowwhenceproceededthefaultsofthatwhich
it condemns;yetit maygratifycuriosityto informit,thattheEng-
lishDictionarywas writtenwithlittleassistanceofthelearned,and
withoutany patronageof the great; not in the softobscuritiesof
retirement, or underthe shelterof academickbowers,but amidst
inconvenienceand distraction,in sicknessand in sorrow.It may
repressthe triumphof malignantcriticismto observe,that if our
languageis notherefullydisplayed,I have onlyfailedin an attempt
whichno human powershave hithertocompleted.If the lexicons
of ancienttongues,now immutablyfixed,and comprisedin a few
volumes,be yet, afterthe toil of successiveages, inadequate and
delusive; if the aggregatedknowledge,and co-operatingdiligence
of the Italian academicians,did not securethemfromthe censure
of Beni; if the embodiedcriticksof France,when fiftyyears had
been spentupon theirwork,wereobligedto changeits oeconomy,
and give theirsecond editionanotherform,I may surelybe con-
tentedwithoutthe praiseof perfection, which,ifI could obtain,in
this gloomof solitude,what would it avail me? I have protracted
myworktillmostof thosewhomI wishedto please have sunkinto
thegrave,and successand miscarriageare emptywords:I therefore
dismissit withfrigidtranquility,havinglittleto fearor hope from
censureorfrompraise.-Samuel Johnson,Prefaceto theDictionary,
1755.

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