How Vague Words Make You Weak

Ezra Pound invented a new form of poetry. He inspired everyone from Hemingway to TS Eliot. And for working with axis Italy, he was declared mad in 1945 & institutionalized for 12 years. In this Memo, discover Pound’s insights on poetry, what to read, why Rome fell, & more👇

Pound on what to read: “Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.” We read for entertainment, distraction, solace - but why not read for power?

Pound on putting your skin in the game: “If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good.” In the preface to Guide To Kulchur, Pound notes that he will be committing himself to ideas that “very few men can AFFORD to.”

Pound on words: Every word comes with “roots” and “associations” - with a history of where the word is “familiarly used” and also where it has been used “brilliantly or memorably.” A great writer uses words with full awareness of this background context.

Ezra Pound on why he discarded rhyme: “One discards rhyme, not because one is incapable of rhyming neat, fleet, sweet, meet, treat, eat, feet but because there are certain emotions or energies which are nor represented by the over-familiar devices or patterns.”

Rome fell as its language fell. Pound: “Rome rose with the idiom of Caesar, Ovid, and Tacitus, she declined in a welter of rhetoric, the diplomat's language to conceal thought...Rome went because it was no longer the fashion to hit the nail on the head. They desired orators.”

Pound on why literature is hero-worship: “The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity. The omniscient historian would display the masterpieces, their causes and their inter-relation. The study of literature is hero-worship.”

The greatest of art foists “sudden growth” upon us, it helps us grasp a complicated emotion or idea in a flash via the means of an elegant “image.” The sensation of “sudden liberation” that accompanies great art derives precisely from this image.

Pound on how to lose an empire: “A people that grows accustomed to sloppy writing is a people in process of losing grip on its empire and on itself.” Vague words betray a mind that is afraid of conclusions. You lose power over reality by first losing your CONCEPTUAL grip.

Pound against relativism: “When words cease to cling close to things, kingdoms fall, empires wane and diminish.” GK Chesterton agrees: “Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.”