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ABC of Reading
 
 
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ABC of Reading (Paperback)

by E Pound (Author) "We live in an age of science and of abundance ..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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ABC of Reading + The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New Directions Books) + Personae: The Shorter Poems of Ezra Pound
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Product details

  • Paperback: 206 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co. (1 Feb 1960)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0811201511
  • ISBN-13: 978-0811201513
  • Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.1 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #23 in  Books > Reference > Library & Information Sciences
    #41 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Poetry > World > American > 20th Century

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
We live in an age of science and of abundance. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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ABC of Reading
95% buy the item featured on this page:
ABC of Reading 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
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The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New Directions Books) 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£17.99
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A challenge to poetry, 3 Jul 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A. B. C. of Reading (Paperback)
Part of Pound's tireless campaign to educate the English-reading public into an understanding of poetry, and to educate English-writing poets. The book's in two parts. The second is an idiosyncratic 100-page anthology of extracts English poems from Chaucer on. The first is a broadside in short chapters and Pound's inimitable telegraph style, on what to read. As always with Pound, the suggestions are designed to stimulate dissent and to smash commonplace opinions: no one can learn to write poetry by reading merely English ... Shakespeare's histories are his best work ... you only need to know the 300 words that make up a foreign-language poem to read it. Peppered with thought-provoking ideas about poetry and literature: "Literature is news that STAYS news"; "Poets are the antenae of the race". Interetsing suggestions for further reading: on why you MUST (as Pound would say) read Dante, Sappho or Crabbe. Pound is so admirable in so many ways: he never wrote to flatter; he hated ignorance and the watered-down values of the literary world; he was an educator -- that is, he beleived that good writing was for everyone, and wanted them to read that rather than bad writing. This manic, authoritative, enthused book should be sent to every poetry publisher, not as a set of rules to be followed but as a challenge to poetry to be aspire to the what is best rather than what is merely competent.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Literature is news that stays news, 13 Nov 2007
By Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This small book contains notes for lectures given by the author, and even propositions for student exercises.
Ezra Pound's comments on language, poetry, drama and music are very astute and actual.
There are two kinds of written language, one based on sound (English), the other based on sight (Chinese).
Three chief means charge language with meaning: visual imagination, emotional correlations by sound and speech, and stimulation of associations remained in consciousness in relation to the actual word groups. Most human perceptions date from long time ago, before we were born.
Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. Music rots when it gets too far from dance.
The medium of poetry is words; the medium of drama is people, using words.
Cinema supersedes a great deal of second-rate narrative and a great deal of theatre.

On writing and writers, Ezra Pound is very severe.
An author should write in order to teach, to move, to delight (R. Agricola). He should use an efficient, accurate and clear language. He should not use words that contribute nothing to the meaning or that distort from the most important factor of the meaning.
The dirtiest book is a manual telling people how to earn money by writing.

This book contains excellent comments on his preferred authors: Homer, Chaucer, Villon, Dante, Shakespeare, but also G. Crabbe or W.S. Landor.
Some of his examples however, should have been translated (`Ne maeg werigmod wyrde widhstondan').
He stresses rightly the importance of art: `A nation which neglects the perceptions of its artists declines.'

A very worth-while read.
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