Poundiana -- EZRA POUND -- SAN MICHELE

Speranza

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound is buried in the San Michele Cemetery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, Europe.   Gravestone of Ezra Pound          (Located in the small protestant section of the cemetery) In 1945 Pound was arrested in Italy for broadcasting fascist propaganda. At his trial he was declared insane and was subsequently committed to St. Elizabeth's mental hospital in Washington, D.C. where he remained for the next twelve years. Following continuous appeals by his fellow writers Pound was finally released in 1958. After his release he returned to Italy where he lived until his death on 1st November 1972.

San Michele CemeteryPound played a major role in promoting and defining modernist literature in the twentieth century. He helped to advance the work of many of his fellow poets including: T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, W.B. Yeats and William Carlos Williams. T.S. Eliot famously dedicated The Wasteland to Pound - calling him 'il miglior fabbro' (the better maker.), quoting from Aligheri's PURGATORIO. The final shape of  The Wasteland owed much to Pound's editing skills.  For over 50 years of his life Pound worked on his Cantos which are now regarded as some of his finest work. See also imagism, modernism and 'Poets on Poetry'.

In her is the end of breeding. Her boredom is exquisite and excessive. She would like some one to speak to her, And is almost afraid that I will commit that indiscretion.