The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date from 1922 onwards. It is a book-length work, widely considered to present formidable difficulties to the reader. Strong claims have been made for it as one of the most significant works of modernist poetry of the twentieth century. As in Pound's prose writing, the themes of economics, governance and culture are integral to its content. The most striking feature of the text, to a casual browser, is the inclusion of Chinese characters as well as quotations in European languages other than English. Recourse to scholarly commentaries is almost inevitable for a close reader. The range of allusion to historical events is very broad, and abrupt changes occur with the minimum of stage directions. There is also a wide geographical spread; Pound added to his earlier interests in the classical Mediterranean culture and East Asia selective topics from medieval and early modern Italy and Provence, the beginnings of the United States, England of the seventeenth century, and details from Africa he had obtained from Leo Frobenius. References left without explanation abound.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cantos

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1614: Native American Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas)

1936: Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: A F5 tornado hit Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 233. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupelo-Gainesville_Outbreak)

1945: Tito allowed temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslavia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz)

1955: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill)

1998: The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge opened to traffic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi-Kaikyo_Bridge)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools." -- Thomas Hobbes (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes)