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blueyorkie's review against another edition
3.0
The First Part of the book consists of the exchange of affectionate correspondence between H. D. and Ezra Pound.
The Second Part: The ultimate nobility is to use classical and mythological references without becoming draping like Victor Hugo, making them live in a poetic gesture that will make you more alive than your spouse. The sky is bouncing on earth - Young people reconciled with the old ones.
'The Wind' by Ezra Pound
"I would go forth into the night", she saith.
The night is freezing beneath the moon.
'Twere meet, my Love that thou went forth at noon
For now, the sky is cold as very death.
And then she drew a little sobbing breath.
"Without a little lonely wind doth crane
And calleth me with wandered elfin rune
That all real wind-born children summoneth
Dear, hold me closer! So, until it is past.
Nay, I am gone the while. Await!"
And I await her here, for I have understood.
Yet held I not this much wind – bound fast.
Within the castle of my soul, I would
For very faintness at her parting, die.
The Second Part: The ultimate nobility is to use classical and mythological references without becoming draping like Victor Hugo, making them live in a poetic gesture that will make you more alive than your spouse. The sky is bouncing on earth - Young people reconciled with the old ones.
'The Wind' by Ezra Pound
"I would go forth into the night", she saith.
The night is freezing beneath the moon.
'Twere meet, my Love that thou went forth at noon
For now, the sky is cold as very death.
And then she drew a little sobbing breath.
"Without a little lonely wind doth crane
And calleth me with wandered elfin rune
That all real wind-born children summoneth
Dear, hold me closer! So, until it is past.
Nay, I am gone the while. Await!"
And I await her here, for I have understood.
Yet held I not this much wind – bound fast.
Within the castle of my soul, I would
For very faintness at her parting, die.
lolasebastian's review against another edition
5.0
End to Torment is the most gravely overlooked memoir of our time. From a literary standpoint, I believe that Hilda Doolittle was and is the only person capable of writing a biography of [a:Ezra Pound|30055|Ezra Pound|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1447820845p2/30055.jpg].
Every page of this book is daringly introspective and perfectly describes a kind of interpersonal intimacy that has to be experienced to be understood. We come to know a brilliant, terrified woman entangled in history with someone who does not share her views or her values. We see Hilda time and time again fighting against the riptide that is Ezra, a dynamic, eccentric, and “intentionally conspicuous” personality.
But the lines between memory and present, between eccentricity and madness, begin to blur. Where is the Ezra of memory, flawed but caring, who wrote golden sonnets to honor the girl he loved? When did he transition from a generally zealous personality to a dangerous zealot? The metaphor of the werewolf is gingerly and flawlessly employed throughout.
This portrait of literature’s most infamous madman and fascist somehow, against the odds, humanizes him. Beginning with their first kiss in a Pennsylvanian woods, overseeing his reign as an Italian propagandist, and somewhat ending with the baffling release of the Pisan Cantos, we see a man steadily and consistently losing his grip on reality.
Whether Ezra’s cantos that result from madness are truly genius, not even Hilda is sure.
The same few patterns plague Hilda and Ezra throughout their lives. He can’t be with her, rather he won’t, but he sabotages her relationships with other people (Frances Gregg, most notably). When Hilda marries and becomes pregnant, Ezra corners her to say “My only criticism is that it is not my child.”
Hilda eventually loses the child, and all she has left to project onto is an alternate history where the fire of their passion became a red-headed child she once saw when they were together. This “spirit child”, a re-occurring motif, is one of the truest forms of grief I’ve ever seen put to paper.
End to Torment is, in my opinion, the only true biography of Ezra Pound. I hope the world becomes better acquainted with it. It is the book I have needed to read for so long, but only just discovered.
ADDED 2/1/2020:
A very basic revelation here. Maybe this one is obvious, but...
I’ve been thumbing through End to Torment again for a creative writing project and there’s this frequent metaphor of Ezra Pound as a werewolf. Lycanthropy, transformation. “Lykos” in the Cantos. Some one turning into someone you don’t recognize. Monstrous. Alongside, of course, the frequent metaphor of Pound as Apollo, born on the island Lycia. Sounded to me like wordplay, but it just occurred to me that, since she was being pursued by Hera, Leto took the form of a she-wolf to seek shelter when she was to give birth to her twins.
Apollo is therefore literally half god and half wolf. Apollo and the werewolf are not two separate allegories, they’re the same one. Apollo is therefore inherently monstrous.
Every page of this book is daringly introspective and perfectly describes a kind of interpersonal intimacy that has to be experienced to be understood. We come to know a brilliant, terrified woman entangled in history with someone who does not share her views or her values. We see Hilda time and time again fighting against the riptide that is Ezra, a dynamic, eccentric, and “intentionally conspicuous” personality.
But the lines between memory and present, between eccentricity and madness, begin to blur. Where is the Ezra of memory, flawed but caring, who wrote golden sonnets to honor the girl he loved? When did he transition from a generally zealous personality to a dangerous zealot? The metaphor of the werewolf is gingerly and flawlessly employed throughout.
This portrait of literature’s most infamous madman and fascist somehow, against the odds, humanizes him. Beginning with their first kiss in a Pennsylvanian woods, overseeing his reign as an Italian propagandist, and somewhat ending with the baffling release of the Pisan Cantos, we see a man steadily and consistently losing his grip on reality.
Whether Ezra’s cantos that result from madness are truly genius, not even Hilda is sure.
The same few patterns plague Hilda and Ezra throughout their lives. He can’t be with her, rather he won’t, but he sabotages her relationships with other people (Frances Gregg, most notably). When Hilda marries and becomes pregnant, Ezra corners her to say “My only criticism is that it is not my child.”
Hilda eventually loses the child, and all she has left to project onto is an alternate history where the fire of their passion became a red-headed child she once saw when they were together. This “spirit child”, a re-occurring motif, is one of the truest forms of grief I’ve ever seen put to paper.
End to Torment is, in my opinion, the only true biography of Ezra Pound. I hope the world becomes better acquainted with it. It is the book I have needed to read for so long, but only just discovered.
ADDED 2/1/2020:
A very basic revelation here. Maybe this one is obvious, but...
I’ve been thumbing through End to Torment again for a creative writing project and there’s this frequent metaphor of Ezra Pound as a werewolf. Lycanthropy, transformation. “Lykos” in the Cantos. Some one turning into someone you don’t recognize. Monstrous. Alongside, of course, the frequent metaphor of Pound as Apollo, born on the island Lycia. Sounded to me like wordplay, but it just occurred to me that, since she was being pursued by Hera, Leto took the form of a she-wolf to seek shelter when she was to give birth to her twins.
Apollo is therefore literally half god and half wolf. Apollo and the werewolf are not two separate allegories, they’re the same one. Apollo is therefore inherently monstrous.
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