Ezra Pound & William Carlos Williams: Theories On The Nature Of Poetry

Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams both comment in a theoretic way on the nature of poetry. Outline briefly their theories. Then discuss the implications their theories have for the writing and reading of poetry, and support your argument with a number of specific examples from their poems.

I have structured this essay so that the first part deals entirely with the theories and poetry of Ezra Pound and the second, entirely with the theories and poetry of William Carlos Williams. Each part will follow the same simple format; firstly I will explain briefly each respective poet's major theories with regard to the nature of poetry. I will then discuss the implications of the respective poet's theories on the writing and reading of poetry. Finally I will conclude the first and second parts of the essay with an analysis of poetry illustrating each respective poet's theories. 

Much of Pound's literary theory is born out of the use of language in Eastern culture. He advocated Asian philosophy including the work of Confucius and Eastern poets such as Du Fu and Cavalcanti who have become somewhat prolific in today's literary context as a result of Pound's initial introduction. Ezra Pound is remembered for pioneering a meticulous, scientific approach to the study of poetry, in his ABC of Reading, he comments, ‘the proper method for studying poetry and good letters is the method of contemporary biologists, that is careful first-hand comparison of one ‘slide' or specimen with another.' It was this attitude that first attracted Pound to the work Ernest Fenollosa who he credited as being the first to show the merits of scientific approach to language, particularly in his ‘Essay on Chinese Written Character'. Fenollosa explained the Chinese ideograph as a means of translation illustrating how the Chinese use pictures as words, for example, ‘East' is represented by a picture of the sun being placed over a picture of a tree, as a representation of the sun on the horizon by...