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The relation of Pound's short imagist poems to the haiku

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The relation of Pound's short imagist poems to the haiku

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Content THE RELATION OF POUND'S SHORT IMAGIST POEMS
I I
TO THE HAIKU
by
Y as uo Iwahar a
HI
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Comparative Literature)
J anuary 1973
UMI Number: EP43087
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U N IVE R SITY O F S O U T H E R N C A LIFO R N IA
T H E G R A D U A TE SCHO O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PARK
LOS A N G ELES. C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This thesis, w ritten by
..... Yasuo Iwaiiara_
under the direction of h.iS...Thesis Comm ittee,
and approved by a ll its members, has been p re
sented to and accepted by the D ean of The
G raduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the
requirements fo r the degree of
AT
ins
MASTER OF ARTS
Dean
•MMITTEE
Chairman
PREFACE
Although the influence of Japanese literature on
Western writers has been minimal thus far, it has long
been acknowledged that the Japanese haiku was attractive
to the Imagists, who sought to establish new forms in
English poetry during the early decades of this century.
These Imagists included T. S. Kulme, F. S. Flint, Richard
Aldington, Hilda Doolittle, Amy Lowell, John G. Fletcher,
and Ezra Pound. Among them. Pound, creator of the name
"Imagism1 ' and foremost among the group during the period
1911 to 1914, is a poet who was able to exert a real
influence on modern English poetry— a poet who captured
some essential features of the Japanese haiku. Most other
Imagists* interests in the Japanese haiku were super
ficially absorbed in exoticism and the trivial and pic
turesque nature of Japanese poetry.
This thesis will attempt to investigate the relation
of the Japanese haiku to Pound's Imagist poetry and his
poetic theories as composed and formulated in the period
of his poetic activity as an Imagist. By virtue of this
study, a part of Pound's Japanese studies should be
clarified, considering that his interest in the Japanese
haiku has occupied a small yet important place along with
his studies in Latin, Proven9al, and contemporary Symbol
ist poetry. Thus, the comparative merit of the relation
ship between Pound's poetry and the Japanese haiku, as
well as the limitations imposed by different cultures
and different literary traditions, will be demonstrated.
As may be apparent, this study is primarily that of
the influence of the Japanese haiku on Pound. That is to
say, initially this thesis is derived from the fact that
Pound expressed his concern with the Japanese haiku in his
famous article, "Vortlcism" in the September 1, 1914 issue
of The Fortnightly Review. In this article, he discussed
his well-known Imagist poem, "In a Station of the Metro"
in relation to the Japanese haiku. But the notion of
"influence" regarded as "rapports de fait"'*' is used not
only to illuminate Pound's imagistic poems in historical
^"Haskell M. Block, “The Concept of Influence in Com
parative Literature," Yearbook of Comparative and General
Li teratures, VII (1959), 32.
aspect or approach but also to provide the subject of this
critical study of Pound's poems and the Japanese haiku.
Thus, the method of investigation in this thesis is
twofold: first, to demonstrate how the Japanese haiku
acted upon Pound in the period of his Imagist activity,
and Pound's understanding of the Japanese haiku through
translation; and second, to compare and define how Pound's
Imagist poems and theories are similar to or different
from the Japanese haiku in terms of the poetic function
and effect of the image, especially in the structural
form of images and the treatment of nature.
To justify my two particular approaches, I should
explain the limitation of the notion "influence" of the
Japanese haiku on Pound's poems and theories. A most
important fact is that Pound's knowledge of the Japanese
haiku came from translations. Pound's studies of the
Japanese haiku were less disciplined than his studies of
Provenyal, Latin and Symbolist poetry. Therefore,
inevitably, Pound's understanding of the Japanese haiku
involves his ignorance, or misunderstanding or miscon
ception of the original haiku. The second limiting fact
of Pound's interest in the Japanese haiku is that his
iv
absorption in the Japanese haiku was focused on poetic
form and image. Thematic problems did not concern him
very greatly. He can therefore scarcely be considered as
a disciple or an imitator. Conversely, by limiting our
inquiry to the area of subject of imagery and structural
form, we will see some valuable comparative merit in the
relationship between Pound's Imagist poetry and the
Japanese haiku.
The problems in Pound's relationship with the
Japanese haiku are compounded by his interest in English
poets and other European literature. For, as T. S. Eliot
pointed out in his Introduction to the 1928 London edi
tion of Pound's Selected Poems, "the first strong influ
ences'* upon Pound's poetry were "those of Browning and
Yeats," and other English Poets of the Nineties. Un
doubtedly, Pound's early literary models initially
belonged to his own English literary tradition. Further
more, since Pound had the ability to read or speak several
European languages, such as Latin and French, he had a
2
Ezra Pound, Selected Poems of Ezra Pound, ed. by
T. S. Eliot (London: Faber & Faber, 1928, 19 48), p. ix.
v
more accurate comprehension of European literatures such
as Provencal poetry, Latin poetry and the Symbolist poetry
than he had of the haiku. We may assume, then, that these
influences on Pound's poetic theories and his poems were
stronger than that of the Japanese haiku. Pound's
literary relations to Browning, Yeats, Proven9al poetry,
Latin poetry and Symbolist poetry should be considered
important to the background of his Imagist poems and
theories.
Following our purpose and method, the basic form of
the thesis may be outlined here. The first chapter demon
strates that Pound's interest in and indebtedness to the
Japanese haiku is revealed by the evidence presented by
Pound himself during the period of his Imagist activity,
and the period when Pound was interested in the Japanese
haiku will be defined. In the second chapter, we investi
gate Pound's sources and his understanding of the Japanese
haiku. Since Pound himself could neither read nor speak
Japanese, it is necessary to explain his limited knowledge
of the haiku. This chapter will reveal some of Pound's
misconceptions of the Japanese haiku. In the remaining
sections of the thesis, a critical investigation and
vi
comparison will be made of the subjects outlined in the
; first two chapters. The third chapter deals with the
poetic effect and function of image, which is Pound's
: main concern with the' haiku. The structural form of
images as a stylistic device is the main area of concern
here. In the fourth chapter, the function of nature in
both Pound's Imagist poems and theories and in the Japanese
i
haiku will be discussed. Since natural objects are domi
nant figures and images in both kinds of poetry, it is
inevitable that the function and significance of nature
; in poetry be explored. As a result, we may confront some
1 cultural differences between West and East, for the
: divergence between Pound's poetry and the haiku seems to
; have stemmed from a deep culture gap between West and
1 East. In this chapter, therefore, our focus will be on
; the establishment of the distinction between Pound's poems
\ ,
1
' and poetic ideas, and the Japanese haiku.
i
The concluding chapter will be a summary of the
i
I significance of Pound's interest in the Japanese haiku, |
!
and some poetic distinctions between Pound's Imagist poems 1
i
and the Japanese haiku will be made. ‘
Although the concept of the haiku used in this thesis
is treated with today's generally accepted Japanese defi
nition, in which the poem consists of seventeen syllables
containing a seasonal element and a cutting word, it is
necessary to explain briefly the criteria of the selected
haiku poems and poets used to compare Pound's Imagist
poems and theories with those of the Japanese haiku. The
selection is based primarily on Pound's sources of trans
lated Japanese haiku which will be discussed in the
i
: following chapters. Besides Pound's quoted haiku poems,
; Basho's poems and theories are used as primary materials,
because Pound must have read Basho's poems in the trans
lation first of all.^ Moreover, although there have been
; a number of great poets in the long history of Japanese
I haiku (about 500 years), Basho Matsuo is the greatest
j haiku poet and the poet who established haiku as a major
j literary genre in Japan. Basho is the authoritative model
‘ a poet of the highest order whose presence could never be
ignored by anyone writing the haiku. His works and
critical comments must define the whole poetic possibility
3
See p. 23 m text.
viii
and potential of the haiku in Japan. For these reasons,
I use Basho's poems and poetic ideas as representative of
the Japanese haiku.
It is also necessary to explain the term haiku, which
is sometimes called haikai or hokku. Haiku is defined as
a poem which is composed of seventeen syllables basically
containing a seasonal element and a cutting word. Orig
inally it was part of the haikai, a form of linked verse
series invented at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The first line of such poetical compositions, consisting
of 36, 50, or 100 lines, was originally called hokku
Cits literary meaning was "opening verse") and later
became independent and developed into what is known as
the "haiku." Although in a historical sense the terms
haiku and hokku are different from each other, we use the
term haiku to include hokku, because hokku has the same
form as the haiku and also because in Basho * s day the
term hokku was almost invariably used to describe his
form.
Since this thesis is involved in two different lan
guages and literary traditions, the choice of literary
terms presents a critical problem. Basically, I try to
eliminate the specific Japanese critical and literary
terms in this study so that my basic literary terms will
be more American, but the use of some specific Japanese
haiku terminology is inevitable. These Japanese terms
and words will be explained in footnotes. In addition,
each haiku used in this thesis will be presented in the
ramanized Japanese juxtaposed with translation. There is
no presentation of Japanese characters; likewise, the
orthography of Japanese poets* names follows the American
custom. Regarding the translation of each haiku, I follow
the usage of today's American scholar, who generally
translates, a haiku poem in the three-line format, although
Pound read the two-line translation. My primary and
secondary sources: will be listed in the bibliography.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to
the members of my thesis committee: Dr. Peter Clothier,
Dr. Sumako Kimizuka, and Dr. Alexandre Rainof, who have
directed this thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE............... ii
Chapter
I. THE FACT OF EZRA POUND'S INTEREST IN THE
JAPANESE HAIKU . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. POUND'S SOURCES AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE
JAPANESE HAIKU ................ 17
III. IMAGE AND THE SUPER-POSITQRY STRUCTURE
OF IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . 26
IV. THE FUNCTION OF NATURE IN IMAGE . . . . 46
V. CONCLUSION ............................. 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY............... 66
xi
CHAPTER I
THE FACT OF POUND'S INTEREST IN THE JAPANESE HAIKU
Pound's encounter with the Japanese haiku occurred
during the Imagist movement, an Anglo-American poetic
movement in the early decades of this century. If our
aim is to establish the fact that Pound was influenced
by the Japanese haiku, our study must rely on the spoken
■ or written words of Pound himself and his Imagist com
panions. Particularly, Pound's own commentaries on his
interest in the Japanese haiku are the fundamental and
important sources of our study.
| During the years between 1900 and 1920, the struggle
! for a new poetry, revolting against the tradition of
! Romanticism, was made in the English-speaking countries.
In this creative attempt, there was a poetic movement of
»
I
| a short duration, called the "Imagist" school, which
; existed from 1909 to 1917. This poetic movement origi-
|
> nated from a “Poets’ Club" founded by T. E. Hulme and
F. S. Flint in a London restaurant in 1909. Ezra Pound,
who sought to explore new English poetry, was staying in
London that year. He attended a meeting of the Poets'
Club on April 22, 1909, about one month after the club
was formed. Pound recited his own poem, "Sestina Alta-
forte," there. At that time Pound was "very full of his
troubadors," the Provencal poetry of the European Middle
Ages. T. E. Hulme is generally recognized as the leader
of the initial Imagist group.
According to F. S. Flint's memoirs, "The History of
Imagism," "what brought the nucleus of this group together
was, a dissatisfaction with English poetry as it was
then," so that a variety of foreign verse forms were
discussed— -giving close attention to imagery. These
f
verse forms included the recent French Symbolism, Japanese ,
tanka and haiku, and sacred Hebrew poems as well as the
Provencal songs. Flint referred to this matter in his ’
i
same essay; i
We proposed at various times to replace it (conven
tional English poetry) by pure vers libre; by the
Japanese tanka and haikai; we all wrote dozens of the
^"F. S. Flint, "The History of Imagism," The Egoist,
II (May 1, 1915), 70.
2Ibid.
3
latter as an amusement; by poems in a sacred Hebrew
form. . . . We were very much influenced by modern
French symbolist poetry.-^
It was the first time that Japanese poetry had signifi
cantly attracted poets of English speaking countries.
Pound gradually seemed to take leadership of the
Poets1 Club from Hulme, whose interests were directed at
philosophy and aesthetics rather than poetry. Apparently
Pound was introduced to the Japanese haiku by F. S. Flint
or other members of the Poets* Club, because "there is no
reason for thinking that Pound knew about Japanese poetry
4
before he joined the Club."
Pound *s interest in the Japanese haiku was not evi
dent, however, until 1912. During the period of 191Q—12,
Pound was occupied primarily with studying contemporary
French poetry and Yeats * poems. Having been strengthened
and sharpened by these influences as well as by Provenyal
poetry, Pound's interest in Japanese poetry had appeared
directly or indirectly by 1912, when he coined the name
^Ibid.
4
Earl Miner, "Pound, Haiku, and the Image," The
Hudson Review, IX (Winter, 1956-57), 570-584.
4
"Imagistes" for “the descendants of the forgotten school
C
of 1909“ in his book. Ripostes, published in October of
that year. In the same year, Pound's indirect concern
with Japanese literature may be seen in his poem, "To
Whistler, American," in the first issue of Poetry (October
1912). It is known that Whistler, an American Impression
ist painter, was influenced by Japanese wooden block
painting (Ukiyoe), a typical Japanese art, when he lived
in France in the late nineteenth century. Pound himself,
. two years later, refers to this point;
I trust that the gentle reader is accustomed to take
| pleasure in "Whistler and the Japanese!" ....
From Whistler and the Japanese, or Chinese, the
"world!" that is to say, the fragment of the English-
speaking world which spread itself into print, learned
to enjoy "arrangement" of colours and masses.^
: Ezra Pound would scarcely have considered a taste for
I
I things Japanese to be that necessary, had he not been
immersed in Japanese art and poetry for some time.
I 5
Ezra Pound, Ripostes (I quoted it from Glenn Hughes,
Imagism and Imagists [Stanford; Stanford University
Press]).
6
Ezra Pound, "Edward Wadsworth, Vorticist," The
' Egoist, June 1914.
5
Through Whistler's paintings, which reflected well the
Japanese artistic features of the wooden block painting.
Pound probably unconsciously formed his ideas about the
nature of Japanese art as well as poetry. Although the
Japanese haiku was obviously a different art from the
wood block painting, both arts were established in the
same period, the seventeenth century, and also had some
common characteristics as art. Generally, both arts were
based on the artistic method of juxtaposed arrangement of
artistic materials, though there was a difference between
the use of color and language. Furthermore, both arts
were s upported by the townsmen, that is, the common
people. Therefore, we may suppose that Pound's concern
with Whistler was indirectly connected with the Japanese
haiku, especially since the Japanese haiku is considered
a pictorial poem.
!
Fortunately, however, there is more explicit evidence .
of Pound's absorption in the Japanese haiku dating up to J
I
late 1912. Referring to his own experience in the Paris j
Metro when he stayed there in 1911, Pound clearly stated ;
in the article "How I Began" that his most well known and j
important imagistic poem, "In a Station of the Metro,"
was related to the Japanese haiku:
For well over a year (1911) I have been trying to make
a poem of a very beautiful thing that befell me in the
Paris Underground. I got out of a train at, I think.
La Concorde, and in the jostle I saw a beautiful face,
and then, turning suddenly, another and another, and
then a beautiful face. All that day I tried to find
words for what this made me feel. That night as I
went home along the Rue Raynouard I was still trying,
I could get nothing but spots of colour. I remember
thinking that if I had been a painter I might have
started a wholly new school of. painting. I tried to
write the poem weeks afterwards in Italy, but found it
useless. Then only the other night, wondering how I
should tell the adventure, it struck me that in Japan,
where a work of art is not estimated by its acreage
and where sixteen syllables are counted enough for a
poem if you arrange and punctuate them properly, one
might make a very little poem which would be trans
lated about as follows:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals: on a wet, black bough.
And there, or in some other very old, very quiet
civilization, some one else might understand the
significance.7
Pound’s phrases "sixteen syllables" and "a very little
poem" refer, of course, to the haiku, although he incor
rectly stated the syllabic count of the proper haiku—
7
Ezra Pound, "How I Began," T. P.'s Weekly, June 6,
1913. Quoted from Noel Stock, The Life of Ezra Pound
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1970), p. 136.
7
which in fact consists of seventeen syllables. It is
clear that Pound was inspired by the Japanese haiku when
he struggled with his own metro experience and he used
verbal language to compare the splotches of color to the
beautiful faces he saw.
Pound later again attested to this fact in his
famous essay, "Vorticism."
Three years ago (1911) in Paris I got out of a "metro"
at La Concorde, and saw suddenly a beautiful face and
another and another. . . .®
Essentially relating the same incident in the article,
"How I Began," Pound, more accurately, and in greater
detail, showed how the Japanese haiku affected the process
of the composition of the metro poem, and how he was
struck by the Japanese haiku:
I once saw a small child go to an electric light
switch and say, "Mamma, can I open the light?" She
was using the age-old language of exploration, the
language of art. It was a sort of metaphor, but she
was not using it as ornamentation.
One is tired of ornamentations, they are all a
trick, and any sharp person can learn them.
The Japanese have had the sense of exploration.
They have understood the beauty of this sort of
knowing. A Chinaman said long ago that if a man
can't say what he has to say in twelve lines he had
g
Ezra Pound, “Vorticism," The Fortnightly Review,
XCVI (September 1, 1914), 465.
better keep quiet. The Japanese have evolved the still
shorter form of the hokku.
The fallen blossom flies back to its branch;
A butterfly.
This is the substance of a very well known hokku.
9
» • *
In the same essay. Pound presented another haiku poem com
posed by a Japanese naval officer:
The footsteps of the cat upon the snow;
(are like) plum-blossoms.
Pound told us that he heard this amateur poem from his
friend, Victor Plarr. And then Pound demonstrated his
understanding of the poetic form of the Japanese haiku
represented in these two examples:
The "one image poem" is a form of super-position,
that is to say it is one idea set on top of
another. I found it useful in getting out the im
passe in which I had left by my metro emotion. I
wrote a thirty-line poem, and then destroyed it
because it was what we call work "of second intens
ity." Six months later I made the following hokku-
like sentence:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals, on a wet, black bough.10
^Ibid., p. 467.
10
Ibid.
9
Leaving for a while the question of whether Pound's
understanding of the Japanese haiku is really accurate,
it must be recognized that he made the hokku—like two-
line poem and used "the form of super-position" of the
Japanese haiku to release the "impasse of his metro emo
tion." Pound once more called his metro poem "hokku" in
his letter^1 of March 30, 1913 to Harriet Monroe, the
publisher of Poetry. According to these three proofs,
Pound's metro poem was undoubtedly composed under the
influence of the Japanese haiku.
To define the external significance of the metro
poem in relation to his Imagist activity and theories,
, the time of the composition of its metro poem is very
important. Since Pound's metro emotion had been experi-
i
; enced in Paris around the late spring of 1911 when he ;
| !
j stayed there, the final date of composition of the poem
: i
i published in Poetry in April 1913 may be placed around
1 ;
j December 1912 or January 1913, for Pound places the writing
\ ]
of the metro poem about a year and a half after the experi
ence in the Paris underground. The year 1912 was very
■ * ‘^Ezra Pound, The Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941,
ed. by D. D. Paige (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.,
1950) , p. 17.
10
crucial for Pound's Imagist activity, because be formulated
the basic principles of Imagism and created tbe name of
the imagists (as "Imagistes" in French). According to
Pound, he discussed the new poetry with Hilda Doolittle
and Richard Aldington in the late spring of 1912, and at
that time they were in accordance with the three princi
ples of good writing which embodied the basic poetic ideas
of Pound as well as the Imagists; (1) direct treatment
of "thing"; (2) to allow no word that was not essential
presentation; and (3) in their rhythms to follow the
musical phrase rather than strict regularity.^ Although
the first two principles of this agreement seem to be
related to the characteristics of the Japanese haiku
whose poetic form inevitably imposes the limitation of
13
* words on poets, these principles can not be confirmed
i
; i
12
Ezra Pound, "A Retrospect," Literary Essays of
I Ezra Pound, ed. by T. S. Eliot (New York; New Direction, ]
; 1968), p. 3. I
I !
13
In respect to this point, Kenneth Yasuda points
out that "haiku could be called the poetry of the noun,"
: and "this point was also recognized by Ezra Pound, one of
whose 'chief aversions' was a 'superfluity of adjectives.'"
Quoted from The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature,
; History, and Possibilities in English, with Selected Exam- ;
pies (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1957), p. 53.
11
as being in the area of Pound's immediate influences from
the Japanese haiku. We can only say that Pound's princi
ples were formulated in the period of his long creative
I
development of the metro poem.
As long as we are concerned with, the date of his
metro poem, however, some of Pound's commentaries on
Imagism can be related to the Japanese haiku. As was
mentioned before, the time of composition of the metro
poem was set around late December 1912 or January 1913.
i About that time, he made an interesting comment in which
he shows concern with the short form poem and refers to
the Imagist:
The youngest school here that has the nerve to call
itself a school is that of the Imagistes. . . .
Space forbids me to set forth the programme of the
Imagistes at length but one of their watchwords is
; Precision, and they are in opposition to the numerous i
and unassembled writers who busy themselves with, dull j
; and interminable effusions, and who seem to think '
\ I
j that a man can write a good long poem before he learns
, to write a good short one, or even before he learns |
i to produce a good single line.^^ i
i j
! Pound's emphasis on "a good short poem," it seems, relates ;
j
! closely to his metro poem as well as the Japanese haiku, i
14
This article was published as Pound's report xn
; Poetry for January 1913.
i -----
!
12
because this article, according to Moel Stock, was written
"during the second week in December"^ and was published
in Poetry in January.
In addition, the time of the composition of the metro
poem approximately corresponds to that of a version of
Poundrs Imagist manifesto, "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste,"
published in Poetry in March 1913. In this article,
Pound gave a definition to "Image":
An "Image" is that which presents an intellectual
and emotional complex in an instant time. . . . It
Is the presentation of such an image which gives that
sense of sudden liberation; that sense of freedom
from time and space; that sense of sudden growth,
which we experience In the presence of the great works
of art.1&
Since Pound mentioned the English psychologist Hart, who
was; Indebted to Freud, his interest seems to have been in
the psychological aspects of the question. It cannot be
said, then, that this definition was related to the
Japanese haiku, but his definition itself embodied the
explication of the metro poem in which Pound crystallized
15
Stock, The Life of Ezra Pound, p. 127.
1 G
Ezra Pound, "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste," Poetry
(March 1913} .
13
a moment of revealed truth, experienced in the Paris under
ground. Moreover, the actual "Don'ts" dealt with poetic
technique:
Use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not
reveal something. . _ .
Go in fear of abstractions. . . .
Use either no ornament or good ornament. . . .
Don't be 'viewy'— leave that to the writers of pretty
little philosophic essay. Don't be d e s c r i p t i v e . - ^
These definitions, of course, are not exclusive patents
of the Japanese haiku, but they must be the main charac
teristics of the brief form of the haiku. As far as the
time of encounter between Pound's metro poem and the
Japanese haiku is concerned, these definitions of image
and poetic technique may reflect Pound's absorption of the
Japanese haiku. As was mentioned previously. Pound him
self especially called the metro poem "hokku" in the
letter of the same month when the article "Few Don'ts"
was published. So, if our chronological estimate for the
metro poem is correct, we may assume that the Japanese
haiku played a role in the development of Pound's poetic
theories of Imagism.
In fact. Pound wrote several two-line imagist poems
■^Ibid.
similar in manner to the metro poem during late 1912 and
1914. Although Pound had already published three collec
tions of his poems, A Lume Spento (190 8), Personae (1909)
and Ripostes (1912), there were no two-line poems; indeed
there were not even any five-line poems in these collec
tions. We can find Pound's two-line poems and some
longer short poems only in his book Lustra, published in
1916, which contained most of the poems written during
1912 to 1915. This simple fact suggests that most of
his short poems were written after his discovery of the
Japanese haiku. Although the shortness of poetry is not
a matter of artistic value, this fact presents minor
evidence, to show Pound*s•indebtedness to the Japanese
haiku. At least, if Pound had not been interested in
the Japanese haiku, he would not have written such two-
line poems as "In a Station of the Metro," "The New Cake
of Soap," "L*Art, 1910," and "Alba."
Pound's Imagist activity as well as his concern with
the Japanese haiku continued at least through the year
1914, when Pound edited the first anthology of Imagist
15
poems, "Des Imagistes," published in March. 1914. He was
involved in a quarrel with, other Imagists such, as Amy
Lowell and Richard Aldington, however, mainly on the
matter of the initiative of the Imagist movement. Pound
moved to Vorticism, but since Pound regarded the Imagist
poems as examples of Vorticism, in his essay "Vorticism"
of the issue The Fortnightly Review for September 1914,
his new artistic flag of Vorticism was not very distinct
from his aesthetic ideas as an Imagist. Yet his shift
from Imagism to Vorticism paralleled the fact that Pound's
interest in the Eastern literatures: transferred from the
Japanese haiku to Japanese Fo plays and Chinese poetry
after he became the literary executor for Ernest
Fenollosa's manuscript about these arts in early 1914.
Extending his imagistic ideas as well as his ideas of the
Japanese haiku, Pound set forth his new poetic idea:
I am often asked whether there can be a long imagistic
or vorticist poem. The Japanese, who evolved the
hokku, evolved also the Foh plays. In the best "Noh"
the whole play may consist of one image. I mean it
is gathered about one image. Its unity consists in
one image, enforced by movement and music. I see
nothing against a long vorticist poem.-*-®
18
Pound, "Vorticism," p. 471.
16
These passages show the development of his imagistic
theories as well as of his interest in the Japanese haiku.
But the long poetic form is not included in the short form
of haiku. Since Poland's interests shifted, we have not
seen the short imagistic poems in Pound's work. As he
lost interest in the movement of the Imagists, his
interest in the Japanese haiku moved to Japanese Mo plays
and Chinese haiku. It might he said that Pound's concern
with the Japanese haiku, as well as with imagist poems,
was an expression of his artistic development toward
writing long poems as those which were later represented
in The Cantos. But this brief process was significant in
establishing Pound's originality and creativity, and in
opening his eyes to Eastern literature.
\
i
CHAPTER II
POUND'S SOURCES AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE
JAPANESE HAIKU
Since Pound neither spoke nor read Japanese, his
knowledge and understanding of haiku depended wholly on
translations. Thus, it is necessary to see what kind of
translation Pound read, for without this investigation,
we. cannot understand his thoughts about the Japanese haiku.
However, before we discuss the source of Pound's knowledge
of haiku, we should explore the sources of the Japanese
haiku and tanka that influenced the members, of the Poets'
Club where Pound first heard about Japanese poetry.
In his memoir, "The History of Imagism," Flint
referred to haiku by the name "haikai" which he said he
and his companions wrote "as an amusement." According to
Earl Miner, their source probably came from a French
translation, because "in general French translators and
critics called haiku 'haikai,* while the English chose
17
18
the other alternative term, 'hokku.But his inference
turned out to be incorrect. There is evidence that
"haikai" was used for haiku by the English scholar,
W. G. Aston, who was one of the pioneers in the field of
Japanese literature in Western countries. Aston wrote the
first history of Japanese literature titled, A History of
Japanese Literature, published in 1899. In his book,
| Aston translated about twenty haiku poems composed by *
Basho and also described the term "haikai" which "consists
of seventeen syllables only.Since Miner does not
refer to specific books in French before the formation of
the Poets' Club in 1909, it is doubtful that Flint and
his companions acquired their knowledge of Japanese poetry
from French translations.^ On the contrary, it is more
1 ;
Earl Miner, "Pound, Haiku and the Image," The '
Hudson Review, IX (Winter 1956—57), 573. '
2
W.G. Aston, A History of Japanese Literature (Lon- '
don, New York, and Yokohama: D. Appleton, 1899), p. 289. j
3It seems to me Miner looked over the studies of j
Japanese literature and culture made by English scholars, I
especially the members of The Japan Society, which was the j
most influential organization of studies of Japan in the
late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries in the j
Western world. This organization, composed of English
scholars and later some Japanese scholars, published the !
19
likely that the members of the Poets* Club acquired their
information and ideas about Japanese poetry, tanka and
haiku, from any one of the three studies of Japanese
A
poetry made by English scholars. Since the magazine,
The Fortnightly Review, was a popular and influential
magazine at the time when the Poets' Club was formed, and
since its date and place of publication indicate that it
periodical, Transactions: Asiatic Society of Japan, which
contained various articles and studies on Japanese culture,
customs, literature and history. In the literary field,
Aston and Chamberlain, both members of the organization,
were important. Aston wrote the first comprehensive his
tory of Japanese literature in the West, and Chamberlain
did studies and a large number of translations of various
kinds of Japanese poems. The books of both scholars were
considered the most reliable sources of Japanese litera
ture not only in English speaking countries but also in
other European countries.
4
Aston, A History of Japanese Lxterature; B. H.
Chamberlain, "Basho and the Japanese Epigram," Trans
actions Asiatic Society Japan (Tokyo, 1902): and J. C. !
Balet and L. Defranee, "Japanese Poetry," The Fortnightly j
Review (London, 1905) . In my bibliographical research, I
found that English scholars of Japanese literature did !
more publication and study of Japanese literature than
French scholars. In the two reliable bibliographies,
Widner Library Shelflist 14: China, Japan and Korea |
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968) , and Com.
Oskar Nachod, Bibliography of the Japanese Empire, 1906- !
1926 (London: Edward Goldstone, 1928), I could not find
any specific studies and translations of haiku made by
French scholars. Both bibliographies show that Japanese
literary studies made by English and American scholars
are more abundant than those made by any other European
scholars.
i 20 :
i
t
j would have been accessible to members of the club, it is
I likely that some members of the club acquired their
1 knowledge of tanka and haiku from Balet and Defranee's
article. Although Balet and Defrance did not present a
lot of translated haiku poems (only six), they explained
the prosodic nature of Japanese poetry, mainly tanka and
haiku, so that it was possible for Flint and his com
panions to acquire enough knowledge to compose English
tanka and haiku "as an amusement." The use of the terms,
"haikai" and "hokku," by Balet and Defrance is not so
important as Miner supposed as their account of the rhythm
of Japanese poetry: “there being neither well-marked
accent nor rhyme," which was due to Flint's comment in
, which "vers libre" is “akin in spirit to the Japanese."
It appears more likely, then, that members of the Poets'
. Club acquired their knowledge of Japanese poetry from
Balet and Defrance's article, and only subsequently from
the other two main studies and translations by the English
scholars. It seems there are no firm grounds for Miner's
inference.
5
F. S. Flint, "History of Imagism," The Egoist, II
(May 1, 1915) , 70-71.
21
Although Pound heard about the Japanese haiku from
Flint and other members of the Poets* Club, his reaction
to haiku was not clear until 1912. By noting the date of
the composition of his metro poem, it seems that Pound
must have read at least one other translation of Japanese
poetry by 1912. This would be Japanese Poetry translated
by B. H. Chamberlain and published in 1910 in London.^
Proof of this is found in Pound's article "Vorticism,1 1
which demonstrated that he adopted Chamberlain's transla
tion:
Fall's flow's returning to the branch . . .
Behold! Xt is a butterfly.
An explanatory note was attached to this translation:
For a moment I fancied it to be a fallen petal flying
back, by some miracle, to its native branch. But lo!
it was a butterfly.” 7
This translated poem, written originally by Moritake
Arakida, who was one of the earliest haiku poets in the
6
Kenneth Yasuda also has indicated this same point in
his book. See Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku (Tokyo: Tuttle, I
1957), p. xviii. !
I
I
7 f
B. H. Chamberlain, Japanese Poetry (London: John
Murray, Kelly & Walsh, 1910), p. 212.
22
sixteenth century, clearly survives in Pound's quoted
haiku:
The fallen blossom flies back to this branch:
A butterfly.
Added to the fact that the words of Pound's quoted
haiku are close to Chamberlain's translation, and judging
from the published date and place of Chamberlain's book,
Japanese Poetry (London, 1910}, it may well have been
available to Pound. It must be remembered that Pound com-
' posed his metro poem in late 1912. Furthermore, the manner
in which he writes the two-line haiku is an exact equiva-
O
lent to Chamberlain's translation. Also, the word "hokku";
used by Pound corresponds with Chamberlain's use of the
word. From this evidence, it is clear that Pound must
have read and been inspired by Chamberlain's book.^
Wo one but Chamberlain translated Japanese haiku in
two lines. In Aston's, and Balet and Defrance1s books,
the Japanese haiku was translated in three lines.
1
9
Since Moritake's haiku poems were not translated
in Aston's book or in Balet and Defrance's article, it :
seems that there was no English translation prior to j
Chamberlain's. Although I cannot offer irrefutable proof, '
the body of works of English translations of Japanese
haiku prior to 1910 was so minimal that we may assume that .
Chamberlain was the only translator of Moritake's poems. ■
23-
Chamberlain presented various kinds of traditional
poetry such as tanka, No, and haiku because this book was
actually a combination of his article, "Basho, and the
Japanese Epigram" of 1902 and another book called Japanese
Poetry, published in 1880, which did not contain any haiku '
poems. The 1910 version contains 205 translated haiku
poems composed by various poets in the period of the
sixteenth century and the late eighteenth century, but as
the title of the section, "Basho and the Japanese Poetical
Epigram" shows, his focus is mainly on Bashors poems and
his poetic ideas. When Pound read Chamberlain*s book, he
must have read Basho's poems, but there is no noticeable
reaction by Pound to the poems of Basho, who was the
greatest poet in the whole history of haiku. Instead,
Pound was attracted by the "fallen blossom" poem of
Moritake, a minor poet who had only four poems translated
in Chamberlain's book. This fact partially indicates or
suggests the deep gap between Pound's general understand- ;
ing of haiku and the typical haiku poems of Basho.
Another interesting characteristic of Chamberlain's
book is that he demonstrated the basic history of the
Japanese haiku, but completely neglected the explanation
of the seasonal elements of the haiku. He also attempted ^
24
to account for the metric system of the haiku, but a
person who does not know the Japanese language cannot
possibly understand Chamberlains explanation fully.
Nevertheless, Pound had an opportunity to read a large
number of translated haiku poems in Chamberlain's book.
Of course, Pound's comprehension, as in so many
areas of his interest, was quite subjective and non-
pedantic. Pound's remarks in regard to the metric system
of the haiku are forthright and honest:
There is a Japanese metric which I do not yet under
stand, there is doubtless an agglutinative metric
beyond my comprehension.10
That Pound incorrectly remembered the number of syllables
of the proper haiku as sixteen syllables in his article,
"How I Began," was pointed out in the first chapter of
this study. Although Pound's comment on Japanese poetry
shows that he was interested in the agglutination of the
Japanese haiku, he scarcely understood the rhythmic
pattern of the haiku, a poem which is arranged in the
three parts of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Likewise, since
Pound neither read nor spoke Japanese, he did not consider
■^Ezra Pound, "Tradition," Poetry (December, 1913).
any specific prosodic characteristic; that is, he ignored
the seasonal element and the cutting word. As a result,
what Pound understood in the Japanese haiku was primarily
the most obvious characteristic of the haiku: its brevity
and conciseness, which he thought to embody "the sense of
the exploration" of poetic language. Secondly, he thought
that the Japanese haiku was a "one image poem," which was
constructed by a "form of super-position." Whether this
comprehension made by Pound is related to the character
istics of imagery of the Japanese haiku or not, is our
central critical problem. It may be said that if Pound
had not conceived a theory of image before he encountered
the Japanese haiku, he might not have been interested in
haiku. Likewise, it must be confessed that "what Pound
understood about Japanese haiku was what he was already
11
thinking and advocating."
^’ " ' ‘ Earl Miner, "Pound, Haiku and the Image," p. 584.
CHAPTER III
IMAGE AMD THE SUPER-PGSITORY STRUCTURE OF IMAGES
In his essay "Vorticism," Pound defined the two haiku
poems (which we have already quoted) as "one image" poems
which were constructed by the "form of super-position."
There is a question whether Pound's definition really
represents the main poetic characteristics of Japanese
haiku. If we agree with Pound's definition, we may be
confronted with another question as to how what Pound has
defined in terms of the "form of super-position” functions
in his Imagist as well as haiku poems. Through the two
questions, we may define some poetic characteristics of
the imagery in Pound*s poems and the Japanese haiku.
Before we turn to our subject, it may be necessary
to discuss briefly Pound's basic poetic ideas. As a
skillful craftsman and teacher of modern poetry, Pound's
central concerns are with poetic form and technique. If
"the arts give a great percentage of the lasting and
unassailable data regarding the nature of man, of
26
27
immaterial man,, of man considered as a thinking and
sentient creature,"-*- the important and essential function
of the artist must he to create a way to communicate
precisely what he has experienced or interpreted in his
emotion or feeling. In his article "Prolegomena" of 1912,
Pound definitely emphasizes the art of poetry, that is,
the matter of technique:
Technique— I believe in technique as the test of man's
sincerity; in law when it is ascertainable; in tram
pling down of every convention that impedes or ob
scures the determination of the law, or the precise
rendering of the impulse.2
That is to say, for Pound, poetry itself is a question
of precision in technique. Through his life, Pound has
repeatedly talked about this point, "precision is the
touchstone of art."^
However, precision in technique is not easily
achieved by poets, because the poets must have "expressed
■'"Ezra Pound, "Serious Artist," Literary Essays of
Ezra Pound, ed. by T. S. Eliot (New York: New Direction,
1954), p. 42.
^Pound, “Prolegomena," Literary Essays of Ezra Pound,
p. 9. This essay was originally published in The Poetry
Review, February 1912.
Pound, "Serious Artist," p. 48.
28
something interesting in such a way that one cannot resay
it more effectively."4 By precision Pound means "maximum
5
effxcxency of expression." Therefore, without losxng
high energy of poetry, poets must perfectly control what
they want to say:
Roughly, then, good writing is writing that is per
fectly controlled, the writer says just what he means.
He says it with complete clarity and simplicity. He
uses the smallest possible number of words. I do not
mean that he skimps paper, or that he screws about
like Tacitus to get his thought crowded into the least
possible space. But, granting that two sentences are
at times easier to understand than one sentence con
taining the double meaning, the author tries to com
municate with the reader with greatest dispatch, save
where for anyc.one of forty reasons he does not wish
to do so.^
: The uniqueness of Pound*s definition of precision is
incorporated in the connection between the concepts of
1 clarity and economy in the use of language. Of course,
i
| this is a result of Pound's revolt against the tendencies
' of Victorian poetry and the earliest twentieth-century
i English poetry, which were filled with abstract and
4Ibid., p. 56.
■ ’ibid.
6Ibid., p. 50.
29
superfluous words such as "dim land of peace." But this
is also the key point of Imagism. Pound says, "the point
7
of imagism is that it does not use images as ornaments."
Pound, for example, holds that Dante is great because he
has created the vivid image, "Paradiso," whereas Milton
is a "windbag" because he depends on rhetoric. Thus,
Pound insists on the objection to rhetoric and ornamenta
tion in poetry in his "A Few Don'ts by An Imagiste."
"Use no superfluous word," and "use either no ornament or
good ornament."
But, what is the place of the image in Pound's defi
nition of poetry? It seems that what Pound has defined
as "image"-— that which "presents an intellectual and emo
tional complex in an instant of time"— is ambiguous, be
cause in this definition he combines the two denotations
of the term "image" which has been defined as the repro
duction in the mind of a sensation produced by a physical
l
perception by psychologists and as the sensational repro- ;
i
duction in the mind rendered by language. But Pound's
7 . !
Ezra Pound, "Vorticism," The Fortnightly Review,
p. 466. |
8Ibid., p. 462. I
phrase “an intellectual and emotional complex in an
instant of time" seems to indicate his primary understand
ing of "image." That is to say that for Pound "image"
presupposes its primary emotion. When emotions or ideas
come into a person's consciousness and before he formu
lates them into words, they appeal to his inner vision or
sensory nerve. These visual or sensory pre-thoughts,
close to a kind of primitive feeling, frequently exist
beyond the categories of language, just as certain colors
or shades of colors in nature cannot be designated by the
names of colors. Just as Pound's metro emotion is found
or discovered "suddenly in an equation . . . not in
speech, but in little splotches of colors,"9 "the Image
is a poet's pigment,"-*-® is "the first adequate equation"^
that enforces the poet's interpretation. Thus, for Pound
the "Image" is defined as "the word beyond formulated
12
language," like a sort of puzzle of emotion.
9Ibid., p. 465.
10Ibid., p. 464.
- * - • * - Ibid., p. 466.
12Ibid.
Since for Pound the image means "an equation," "the
primary pigment," it is really crucial to render the image
in the “formulated language” which has to crystallize the
precision, using "the smallest possible number of words."
Therefore, the poet must have the sense of exploration of
13
a language. It seems to Pound that the Japanese haiku
as "one image" poetry has incarnated this sense. Now we
arrive at the crucial question of how "one image" poetry
as: defined by Pound is really characteristic of the
Japanese haiku.
What, then, are the main characteristics of the
Japanese haiku? It is obvious that, since a haiku poem
consists of only seventeen syllables, the brevity of form
is the most characteristic factor. The extreme brevity,
initially, limits the number of words used in a haiku
poem. It Is impossible to have a decorative or ornamental
expression in the haiku. For if it does, a haiku poem
fails in the creation of poetic power. Therefore, a haiku
poet must rely on the suggestive or interpretative power
of expression. If we use Pound's words, precision in
language would limit the range of suggestion.
32 j
This brief form of the haiku tends to be based on !
images or imagistic expression. Since the absolute quan- ;
tity of words is limited, it is difficult to express
human passion such as love or didactic human thought such
as ideas concerning death. This point seems to be
realized by Basho: “It is hard to express the inner
thought (or will) within seventeen syllables .“■ * * 4 In fact,
there have been few love songs or didactic poems in the
whole history of the haiku. On the contrary, like Imagism,
which was influenced by the Japanese haiku, the haiku
essentially relies on the poetic power of imagery.
These characteristics are somewhat obvious ones of
the Japanese haiku. In respect to Pound's Imagist poetry,
the. structural form of images or imagery is more important.
How can the structural form of the Japanese haiku be
characterized? Initially, because of its brevity, the
haiku is based on the various illogical arrangements of
things, objects, or images. In American critical terms,
the characteristic structure of images in a haiku poem may
14
Saizo Kito and Noichi Imoto, eds., Renga ron-shu,
Hairon-shu (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1962), p. 416.
33 I
be defined in terras of juxtaposition, or super-imposition.
This structural characteristic of images seems to be con
sciously realized by Basho: ‘ "A haiku poem is an assem-
15
blage of different objects or images." Basho*s state
ment clearly indicates that a haiku poem is constructed
by two or more different objects or images which in prose
cannot be related to each other.
Let us take a couple of typical structural examples
of haiku:
On a withered branch, Kareeda ni,
A Crow is sitting; Karasu no tomarikeri
Autumn evening. Aki no kure.l®
This poem, composed by Basho, is divided into two distinct
parts: the first two lines are a sketch of a scene and
the. third is a mood and time to be compared with that
scene. This characteristic is affirmed in the original
17
Japanese, xn which the cutting word "kerx" is used.
15Ibid., p . 365.
16
Basho Matsuo, Basho ku-shu, ed. by Atsuzo Otani and
Shunjo Nakamura (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1963), p. 128.
17
The cutting word, called kiregi in Japanese, xs
seen in many a successful haiku. Some of the haiku
critics listed 18 words, and others listed 28. But the
most important of them are "ya,” "keri," "nari," "kana,"
and "shi." These words almost have no literary meaning,
but are used as a kind of explanatory meaning or emphasis .
34
This word has almost no lexical meaning, but it serves
as an exclamatory stress. By virtue of the presence of
this word, the center of poetic interest and energy on
which the poetrs primary emotion is concentrated is
established, and at the same time, structurally the word
“keri" forces the poem to divide its two elements. Thus,
the structure of this poem is that of a somewhat non
concrete image or mood, “autumn evening1 1 is juxtaposed
with the first vivid and concrete detail, “a crow perched
on the withered branch.“
Another structural use of image follows:
Such stillness; Shizukasa ya
The cries of the cicadas Iwa ni shimiiru
pierce into the rocks. Semi no koe.I8
This is: typical of the super-pository images, because the
image “stillness" is clearly vivified and intensified by
the image of the last two lines. The penetrating noise
of the cries of cicadas, reinforced by the expression,
"pierce into the rocks," is subtly contrasted with the
to express the focus of the emotion or the feeling. His
torically, this kind of word was invented to distinguish
an opening verse from the rest of a linked verse series.
18Ibid., p. 102.
: 35
' image of "deep stillness." Of course, there is the cut
ting word "ya" which may correspond to "Ah!" or "Oh" in
English: a sigh of admiration. Furthermore, the image
of the brief life of the cicadas (which have usually only
several days life on earth) is blended with the unchange
ability of the rock in the quiet mood of the mountain
scene. The total poem conveys the inextricable feeling
of cosmos and nature which include every living thing on
earth.
Departing spring; Yukuharu ya
Birds, weep, while in Torinaki uo no
The eyes of fishes are tears. Me wa namida.^
' This poem is, in the structural form of the image, similar '
, to the cicada poem. The nonconcrete mood of the first
i line is revealed in the vivid and perceptual image of the
;_last two lines. !
■ I
If we use the same method of analyzing the structural :
i ‘
i form of images of the haiku, we could make a long list,
i .
: but for our present purposes, two structural elements are I
[
' important. As Donald Keene notes:
I I
The haiku, for all its extreme brevity, must contain j
I two elements, usually divided by a break marked by j
j what the Japanese call a "cutting word." One of the
19
Ibid., p. 25.
36
elements may be the general condition— the end of
autumn, the stillness of the temple ground (depart
ing spring)— and the other the momentary perception.
The nature of the elements varies, but there should
be the two electric poles between which the spark
will leap for the haiku to be effective; otherwise,
it is no more than a brief statement.^0
This statement by a well-known scholar of Japanese litera-
21
ture is basically similar to Basho‘s remarks. In short,
the structural characteristics of the haiku are basically
defined in the juxtaposition or super-position of images
or poetic objects.
Thus, Moritake's butterfly poem, which Pound exem
plified as his explanation of "one image" poem, is also
constructed by the "super—position" of images. Translat
ing it in our way, we again present Moritake's poem here:
A fallen petal of cherry blossom Rakka eda ni
seems to return to its branch; Kaeru to mire ba
A butterfly. Kocho kana.
It is clearly divided by the images of the first two lines
and that of the last line by the cutting word "kana” which
is almost an admirable sigh. The images of this poem are
20
Donald Keene, Japanese Literature: An Introduction
for Western Readers (New York: Grove Press, 1955), p. 40.
21See p. 32.
37
simpler than the examples of Basho, but the basic struc
ture of images is similar to them.
Although Pound did not know any specific character
istics of the Japanese haiku, he captured the main
characteristic structure of images or form. Referring to
the aforementioned Moritake poem, Pound defines the haiku
as: "one image" poem which is constructed by "a form of
super-position." According to Pound this form means "it
is one idea set on top of another." Pound's term "form"
may be replaced by the word "structure," because Pound
focuses on the relation of images rendered.
Since Pound's term "a form of super-position” is
useful in describing a structural technique used in his
i
' metro poem, it will be necessary to consider what he means
. by it, and how his concept implies the structural method
i
; of images. Here is his "In a Station of the Metro"
| again:
The apparition of these faces in a crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
The poem clearly is divided into two parts. One part,
1 the first image is relatively nonvisual and even less
i
• concrete. The second part is a striking and evocative
concrete image, the pretty petals on a moistened, black
38 I
bough. In its simplest structure, the connection between >
what may be defined as the less concrete image ( or rather
statement) and the more electric and sparer visual image
is made not on the perceptual level but on the inter
pretative level. The vision of "beautiful faces" in a
crowd which Pound experienced in the metro is not imme
diately clear, but the evocative images of the last line
vivifies and intensifies the vague image or statement of
the first line. The structural relation of this poem, in
this sense, undoubtedly is similar to that of the haiku
represented in our examples. Basho's cicada poem, espe
cially, is very close to Pound's metro poem, because as
in Basho * s poem, the less concrete image "such stillness"
is vivified by the concrete and aural imagery of the last
line. Poland's metro poem is constructed in the same
manner.
Pound wrote several Imagist poems using the same
structure as that used in his metro poem. Although
"April" is written in somewhat longer lines, he uses the
structural form of the super-position of images:
Three spirits came to me
And drew me apart
To where the olive boughs
39 !
' \
' lay stripped upon the ground: :
Pale carnage beneath bright mist.22
The imagery of the first four lines is focused on the
situation in a descriptive manner. Then Pound suddenly
presents the very evocative and startling image of the
last line. Although the total imagery creates the subtle
feeling of spring with a violent thrust, the structural
construction of the two parts of this poem is super
imposed by the image of the last line.
Likewise, Pound composes "Gentildonna" in the same
manner:
She passed and left no quiver in the veins., who now
Moving among the trees, and clinging in the air she
severed,
Panning the grass She walked on then, endures:
Grey olive leaves beneath a rain-cold sky.
In this poem, the descriptive image of the first three
' lines is intensified by the sparser image of the last line
in which the mood is firmly set.
22
Ezra Pound, Personae (New York: Horace Liveright,
1926}, p. 100.
23
Ibid., p. 92. This poem was published m Poetry,
November 1913.
40
Of course, we find a structure much more similar to
i the metro poem in the two-line poems which he considers
"hokku." For example, Pound employs a super-pository
: form in the "The New Cake of Soap":
Lo, how it gleams and glistens in the sun
Like the cheek of a C h e s t e r t o n . 24
In this poem, the two parts of the image are used in a
simile, and the relation between the two different objects
is simply connected in likeness. Changing the order of
the structure of the metro poem, "Alba" may be seen in
the super-pository form.
As cool as the pale wet leaves
of lily-of-the-valley
She lay beside me in the d a w n . 25
; This poem is typical of the kaleidoscopic characteristics
of Pound's poetry. Clearly, the motif is borrowed from
the Provengal poetry in which "Alba" is denoted as a love
, lyric (usually dealing with a parting of lovers at dawn).
. But the poetic form is like the metro poem, that is,
f
; with haiku-like lines. Here we see also the employment
of the one vivid and concrete image with the statement
24
Ibid., p. 99.
25Ibid., p. 109.
41
of the last line. While the poetic tone is static, the
images can be interpreted to suggest the end of a passion-
' ate love affair, because of the image "as cool as the
pale wet leaves of lily-of-the-valley" which may be asso
ciated with a dead body.
Besides these examples of Pound*s imagistic poems,
. we may list several kinds of similar structure of images—
such as "Woman Before a Shop," “L*Art, 1910," "Liu Ch*e,"
“Fan-piece, for Her Imperial Lord." As typified in the
metro poem, the construction of the super-position of
• imagery is: the juxtaposition of two different components
i
of poetry. This form is basically constructed in this
way: A vague image or statement is vivified or percep-
tualized by the sensory and evocative image, creating the
sensibility of poems. That is to say, as we have seen
i that Basho's cicada poem is similar to the structure of
]
, the metro poem, both by the haiku and Pound's short
t Imagist poems are constructed by the interlocking of the
two different components in a brief form. It is close to
; the so-called montage method, which presents the relation-
: ship of the similar to the dissimilar.
The function of the super-pository image, however,
42 :
is different in the two kinds of poetry. Since for Pound
the image means "equation," how is this equation rendered
in verbal form? How does the poet present the "intellec
tual and emotional complex"? The super-pository image is
a matter of precision by which is: meant "maximum effi
ciency of expression." To create the precise image as
"equation,, E Pound basically uses the super-pository *
images in two ways: first, as represented in "The New
Cake of Soap," and "Alba," the super-pository image is
used as a simile; second, as embodied in "In a Station of
the Metro" and "April," it is employed as a metaphor. By ,
i
presenting the relationship of the nonconcrete to the
concrete and sensory quality of image, the total image
becomes a sort of a figurative expression. In Pound's
poems, the sensory quality of images, like "petals on a
wet, black bough" is essential, but this is only utilized
in the poetic context, to evoke the high poetic meaning
i
consciously formulated in the contrast between two differ- ,
ent components of poetry. Thus, the super-position of i
t
images functions as a skillful device of the poet who is
engaged in a struggle to rectify the dissociation of
sensibility produced by modern scientific circumstance
and isolated mind. It may be said that in Pound*s Imagist ,
43
poems, this method is a mode of apprehension, a means of
perceiving and expressing truth conceived as "an equa
tion" by the poet.
On the other hand, the super-pository structure of
the Japanese haiku primarily derives from the necessity
to extend the capacity of the poetic images as an inde
pendent poem, but the purpose of this method aims simply
at perceptual unity with the support of another major
poetic device, the seasonal element. But the structural
method of the haiku is not a device to create a figurative
expression; it is a device to convey a spontaneous impres
sion. Since the number of words of the haiku is smaller
than the number of words in Pound*s short poems, it is
impossible to construct the figurative and complicated
expression— to construct, that is, the sort of artificial
| meaning or imagery of the English "figure of speech,"
' although the haiku is often interpreted as a kind of
metaphor by American critics. Regarding this, Kenneth
1 Yasuda points out that “haiku eschews metaphor, simile,
i
or personification," and "nothing is like something else
in most well realized haiku." Directness and the thing-
26
; Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku, p. 50.
44
ness of meaning which is implied in a word itself are
initial sources of poetic image. Thus, the super-pository
structure of images is employed in order to re-create a
spontaneous and intuitive revelation or expression of
perceptual truth in which the sensibility of the poet and
his perception of natural phenomena are harmonized.
Unlike Pound's elaborate effort to create the unified
sensibility rectifying the dissociation of sensibility,
the haiku poets simply and spontaneously use this method
to convey harmony between men and nature.
Although the function and the usage of the super-
pository structure in the haiku are different from those
in Pound's imagistic poems, this ambiguous poetic form is ,
1
useful for condensing poetic meaning and imagery in both F
Pound's poems and in the haiku. For Pound the super-
pository structure is significant for crystallizing the <
i
one image? "an equation" with preciseness, much as the ;
Japanese haiku poets invented this structure to overcome j
the limitation of the absolute shortness. But the usage !
of this structure by the haiku poets is very spontaneous, j
while Pound uses it consciously as a technical device. ,
In Pound's poems, the super-pository structure by delib- i
erate effort evokes the unified sensibility which induces >
or imposes interpretation in the feeling of the reader.
On the other hand, the super-pository structure of the
haiku is simply employed to create spontaneously the
intuitive perception of truth. These differences are
the reflections of differences between the twentieth
century American Pound and the pre-scientific haiku poets.
Nevertheless, to create interpretative and suggestive
poetry, both Pound and the haiku poets use the super-
pository structure.
CHAPTER IV
THE FUNCTION OF NATURE IN IMAGERY
In Pound's Imagist short poems, which are basically
constructed in the super-pository structure and its modi
fied structure, natural objects and images are frequently
used to create concrete and vivid poetic images and
imagery. Likewise, the Japanese haiku, which almost
always contains a seasonal element, relies heavily upon
nature and natural images. At least on the surface.
Pound's Imagist poems are parallel to the Japanese haiku
in regard to the frequent use and significance of nature
or natural objects.
There are few of Pound's poems, however, in which
nature is a subject. As a whole, in his Imagist poems,
the content of images does not deal exclusively with
nature. As seen in his metro poem, his Imagist poems
basically employ the natural objects and images juxtaposed
with somewhat less concrete expression or statement and
are not focused on natural images. On the other hand, the
46
47
Japanese haiku deals entirely with nature, especially
through the prosodic device of the seasonal word in the
haiku which represents its main poetic characteristic.
Although this characteristic either is not known to Pound
or is ignored by him, the poetic power of imagery in the
Japanese haiku essentially derives from the use of a
seasonal element. As the super-position or juxtaposition
of the structural form is inevitable because of the brev
ity of the haiku, the seasonal element is also an indis
pensable factor. In this chapter, we will discuss the
flinetion of nature as the matter or content of the imagery
in both Pound's short imagistic poems and in the Japanese
haiku.
Although objects of nature have been used in poetry
from ancient to modern times in every national literature,
it seems that Pound has realized a specific significance
and function for such objects in respect to his theories
of image. During the period of his Imagist activity,
Pound often remarked on the significance of the natural
objects in poetry:
I believe that the proper and perfect symbol is the
natural object, that if a man uses "symbols," he must
so use them that their symbolic function does not
obtrude; so that a sense, and the poetic quality of
4 8
the passage, is not lost to those who do not under
stand the symbol as such, to whom, for instance, a
hawk is a hawk.1
In this passage, which was actually headed with the title
"Symbols," Pound gives the unique definition the emblem
atic function of "the natural object" in poetry, empha
sizing it as the perfect symbol*
One may wonder how the term "symbol," used in Pound's
statement, is related to the concept of "image." This
question becomes very significant in understanding his
| idea of image as well as his conception of the function
of the natural object in poetry. An answer will be seen
in the light of the distinction given by Pound between
1 Imagism and Symbolism:
Imagism is not symbolism* The symbolist dealt in
"association," that is, in a sort of allusion, almost
of allegory. They degraded the symbol to the status
of word. They made it a form of metronomy. One can
be grossly "symbolic," for example, by using the term
"cross" to mean "trial." The symbolist's symbols have
fixed value, like numbers in arithmetic, like 1, 2,
and 7. The imagiste's images have a variable signifi
cance, like the signs a, b, and x in algebra.^
> l
Ezra Pound, "Prolegomena," Literary Essays of Ezra
, Pound, ed. by T. S. Eliot (New York: New Directions,
; 1954), p. 91.
i
2
Ezra Poiond, "Vorticism," The Fortnightly Review,
XCVI (September 1, 1914), 463.
49
Although Pound's distinction in discussing “Symbolism" is
a very subjective one, it is clear that for Pound the
definition of image does not mean a product of "dealing
in association, almost allegory." In this sense, Pound
uses the term "symbol" in his essay, "Prolegomena,"
directing it toward the same meaning as "image."
Thus declining the obtrusive use of meanings which
are equivalent to the denial of the associational or
allegorical treatment of "symbols," he insists on the
i
recapturing of a fresh meaning for a word from the con
ventional and traditional usages. In other words, Pound
stresses the reality of the meaning of a word itself,
like "a hawk is a hawk.” For instance, Pound might deny
! such use of words as "a hawk is courageous," or "a
I
nightingale symbolizes melancholy." These examples, at
^ least for Pound, mean the distortion and obtrusiveness of
I
meanings of the words. Pound wants the meaning of a word
| to be found in the word as it is. This attitude of
i Pound’s toward the meaning of language is constituted
from his emphasis on "image," which is primarily con-
! ceived as "the poet’s pigment" and the "word beyond
i
formulated language."
50
Pound's insistence on the image as well as on the use
of the proper meaning of a word is linked to his emphasis
on perception and his objection to abstraction in poetry.
3
Since "an image" is "real" it should be known directly;
perception is the main mental function of a man's mind in
the conveyance of truth:
Our only measure of truth is . . our perception of
truth. The undeniable tradition of metamorphoses
teaches us that things do not remain always the same.
They become other things by swift and unanalysable
process.4
Pound believed that a poet should be in a state of
“ecstacy,' * "a low arising from the exact nature of the
perception." Likewise, "any serious work vivifies a
man's total perception of relations." These statements
3
Ibid., p. 464.
4Ezra Pound, "Arnold Dolmetsh," Literary Essays of
Ezra Pound, p. 431.
5
Ezra Pound, "Psychology and Troubadours," The
Spirit of Romance (New York: New Direction, 1952), p. 91.
6
Ezra Pound, "History and Ignorance," Impact: Essays
on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization,
ed. by Noel Stock (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1960),
p. 237.
by Pound basically not only parallel his insistence on
the image of poetry, but also reveal the emphasis on the
natural object of imagery. The natural object incarnates
the external and materialistic thing which can be per
ceived by the sensory nerves of human beings.. It is
therefore the most fundamental fact of the poetic image.
In other words, the physical quality or figure of the
natural object is useful to induce the perceptual image.
The perceptibility of the natural object is utilized
to avoid and reduce the abstraction of expressed language
Since Pound maintains that preciseness of expression,
\
concreteness, and objectivity are indispensable, the
natural object is the main source of vividness of poetry
to create the precision and concreteness:
Don't use such an expression as "dim land of peace."
It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the
concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing
that the natural object is always the adequate symbol.^
It is clear that Pound intends an increase of the vivid,
concrete objective force through the used natural object.
But what do the Japanese haiku poets think about
nature and the natural object? The perceptibility of
7
Ezra Pound, "A Few Don'ts by An Imagiste," Poetry,
March 1917.
52
nature is a primary significance of the natural object.
Basho refers to tliis point:
Changes in nature and cosmos are said to be the core
of poetic spirit. The calm embodies the unchange
ability. The active reveals the changes. If a poet
does not capture each change, at that very moment,
the change will not be fixed. By the word "capture,"
I mean to record by seeing and listening. Unless a
poet sees and listens to the fallen flowers and dead
leaves when they are falling, the vividness of these
changing phenomena disappear or fade after the fact.®
In this; statement, Basho emphasizes the role of a poet
in capturing the metamorphoses of nature, and also the
significance of percipient insight. Moreover, the nature
of Bashols statement indicates that he thinks not only of
the static condition of nature hut also of the movement
or change in it. This is the essential view of the
Japanese haiku poets toward nature. According to Basho,
"those who want to create art are to follow the universe
and become a friend with the four seasons."® The fact
g
Saizo Kito and Noichi Imoto, ed., Renga ron-shu
Hai ron-shu (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1952), p. 401.
9
Basho Matsuo, Basho bun-shu, ed. by Shoichiro
Sugiura and Saburo Miyamoto (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1960),
p. 52.
i that the Japanese haiku poets have cherished the changing ;
■ phenomena of nature is clearly represented in the presence
of the seasonal element. Many a successful haiku poem
has a sense of season which usually is implied in a
10
seasonal word, known as kigo. By means of the presence
, of a sense of season, a haiku poet creates clarity and
, fullness of mood in a haiku poem and brings it to bear
upon the emotion caught and perceived by the poet.
Because a haiku poem is restricted to an absolute quantity
of words and imagery, it is necessary to extend the capac
ity of meaning of each word through association. When the
t meaning of a word is additionally related to a seasonal
element, its extensive meaning will be attained. Cer
tainly, a seasonal word in a sense embodies a fixed value
and feeling which Pound intensively denies in his view of
; the use of poetic language. By setting a certain time of
year, it is possible for a haiku poem to produce a mood
and a feeling for the poem. It may be said that a sense
IQ
Such a word may be a definite naming of the season,
like “autumn wind," or a mere suggestion, like a reference
to "snow." The custom of using season words has hardened
into an almost inviolable rule and been systematized in
Saijiki, a collection of seasonal words or themes, which
was compiled, classifying them as belonging to certain
predetermined seasons.
54
of season suggested by a seasonal word is "a symbol of
feeling.
Another important function of a seasonal sense is
the force of unifying into a whole the juxtaposed or
superposed images and meaning. As we have seen, the
structure of images of the haiku is a creation of the two
different components. The presence of the seasonal atmos
phere creates the harmonious perceptual unity of the two
different elements by its associational power. That is
to say, the images of a haiku poem rely less upon the
context of formulated language than on the presence of
a sense of season.
For example, in Basho's cicada poem, the cicadas
which represent mid-summer are associated with a sultry
mood of summer. When this mood is set by cicadas, we can
imagine that the poet is in the old temple garden on the
mountain and that he contemplates or feels a moment of
harmony between the temporal existence of life and the
permanence of life as he is encompassed by the deep still
ness. Without the cicadas, that is, the sense of mid
11
Kenneth Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku, p. 43.
summer, it is impossible to feel the significance of the
deep stillness and perceptual unity. Let us consider an
example which is favored by American readers:
This poem is one of the best known poems by Basho. In
this poem, the presence of the season, the late spring
represented in a word “frog," is a determinable factor in
the interpretation of the mood and imagery. By presenting
the image "frog," this poem is seen as a reflection on the
calm and still mood of spring. If the poet did not
present a sense of this season, it would be hard to under
stand the intuitive feeling with which he is struck by
the sound of water made by a frog. Because of the calm
and stillness of late spring, a small yet subtle sound of
water produced by a frog is captured as a kind of revela
tion of momentary truth, each image reflecting a mood
associated under the perceptual circumstance. Thus, the
natural object or image viewed through the sense of season
is signified and functions as the integral factor to
create the perceptual unity of images.
The ancient pond;
A frog jumps in
Sound of water.
Furuike ya
Kawazu tobikomu
Mizu no oto.
12.
Basho Matsuo, Basho ku-shu, p. 37.
56
Although. Pound realized the importance of the natural
object to present concrete and vivid images, the function
of the natural object and images was used in a particular
sense. Unlike the significance and function of the
seasonal element in the haiku, Pound wants to eliminate
the associational and conventional function of the
natural images. In his short Imagist poems, the natural
image is not a perceptual force to unify the two different
components of poetry. Conversely, he attempts to evoke
perceptual impact which must induce an unpredictable and
nonconventional association in the reader's mind. The
purpose of this attempt is that the created image appeals
to the reader to accept the poet's interpretation as their
own emotion and experience. Just as he wants to avoid the
conventional and associational meaning of a word, it seems
that Pound expects a purely sensory yet personal quality
in his natural images. These points are typified in his
metro poem. In this poem, the first vague modern image,
"apparition of these faces in a crowd" is revealed in the
second evocative and perceptual natural image, "petals on
a black, wet bough.“ But the direction of this sensory
impact is not definitely expected in the feeling of the
reader, but rather, Pound intends to impose his own metro
emotion on the interpretation of the reader. Kenneth
, Yasuda, in the tradition of the haiku, criticizes this
point; following Fletcher’s criticism on Pound's metro
poem which is “not absolutely clear" of the relation
between "certain beautiful faces" and "petals on a wet
tree branch," the poetic "experience is not unified"
because there is no “objective criterion" such as the
13
seasonal element of the Japanese haiku. Yasuda's
criticism is not entirely true, but partially so; when he
points out that the perceptual force of the natural images
in Pound’s metro poem is used in a very private, that is,
subjective sense. Yet, at least for Pound's metro poem,
this is natural because the natural image "petals on a
wet, black bough" is employed to reveal his subjective
: perceptual emotion, just as the created image— a metaphor
■ in this case— appeals to the reader to accept the poet's
I
interpretation as his own emotion.
The manner in which he uses the natural image in his
metro poem is commonly seen in those poems we defined as
metaphor, "L'Art, 191Q," which modifies somewhat the order
13
Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku, p. 65.
58
of the super-pository structure, is much more character
istic in its use of the natural object:
Green arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth,
Crushed strawberries 11 Come, let us feast our eyes.^
This is a satirical metaphor. It may be interpreted as
a vindictive farewell to the Imagists, for Pound had been
forced to leave this movement in 1914 when he composed and.
published it in the first issue of Blast, the Vorticist
periodical. The natural object, "crushed strawberries,"
is used essentially in violent impact, evoking angry per
ception. It is clear that Pound does not intend to form
a perceptual unity by the "strawberries.1 1 For Pound, the
natural object is just a means to evoke a perceptual
stimulus with figurative language. Although his other
poetry, defined as simile, contains much more perceptual
sensibility and unity as shown in "Alba" or "Fan-piece, (
for Her Imperial Lord," his natural object is still only
a tool to convey another subject.
14 1
Ezra Pound, Personae: The Collected Poems of Ezra
Pound, including Ripostes, Lustra, Homage to Sextus
Propertius, H. S. Mauberley (New York: Horace Liveright,
1926), p. 113. ;
59
On the other hand, for the haiku poets, nature is
, not only a means but also an end, because nature in the
haiku is more inclusive and universal a concept. One may
wonder whether the seasonal element in a haiku poem is an
attempt to link natural phenomena and human feeling, but
it is really used to link nature and humanity. Because
in Japan there is no word for nature as something apart
and distinct from man— something that might be contem
plated by man, "the thinking reed"— man was treated as an
integral part of the whole, closely associated and iden
tified with the elements and forces of the world about
, him. Nature and the universe are incarnated in life,
death, and even human feeling. Natural objects and
phenomena manifest the most ideal beauty as well as human
feeling. In this fundamental cultural attitude, Basho
! remarked, "learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and
, a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.Certainly the
>
i
i sources of this idea were Shintoism, a native mystic reli-
i
gion; and Buddhism, especially Zen. In both religions,
; 15 .
i Kito and Imoto, ed., Renga ron-shu? Hai ron-shu,
; p, 399.
I
60
nature is the core of the philosophic and religious world.
Likewise, nature to the haiku poet Basho, as well as to
16
other Japanese, is the "core of poetic spirit." In his
Spirit of Japanese Poetry, Yone Noguchi states;
Poetry should express the truth in its own way; by
that truth we Japanese mean nature; again by that
nature the order of spontaneity.17
As nature is truth, nature can reveal the truth of the
human being as well as his emotion and feeling. In this
long cultural tradition, the value and significance of
the seasonal sense has represented certain feelings of
human beings. This Is especially so In Japan because
she is geographically placed where the change of seasons
can be clearly experienced. Under such circumstances, the
aesthetic value of the Japanese haiku was formed in the
seasonal sense and embodied the condensed collection of !
the traditional aesthetic consciousness and feeling. :
1
Therefore, the perceptual truth revealed in many a sue-
i
cessful haiku poem incarnates the moment of unity between ■
i
t
f
t
"^See p. 52.
•^Yone Noguchi, The Spirit of Japanese Poetry, quoted
in Armando Martins Janeira, Japanese and Western Litera
ture (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1970), p. 45.
the mind of a poet and nature.
Although Pound realized the significance of percep
tual quality of the natural object, he scarcely imagined
the kind of concept of nature conceived by the haiku.
For Pound the function of the natural object after all is
a means to precisely communicate the image as "an equa
tion." On the other hand, perhaps what Pound did not
really understand in the Japanese haiku was the particu
lar concept of nature reflected in the culture, for while
every haiku poem is entirely devoted to nature, Pound's
"nature" is a particular means toward a more personal,
subjective end in his imagistic poems.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
In the preceding chapters we have seen, in some
specific ways, the relationship between Pound's short
Imagist poems and the Japanese haiku. Although we should
not overemphasize the influence of the Japanese haiku on
Pound's Imagist poems, no one doubts the fact that Pound
was interested in and influenced by the haiku. The haiku
acted especially on Pound's most celebrated imagist poem,
"In a Station of the Metro," as well as on other short
■ poems of two or five lines. Since these short Imagist
poems were written during the development of his Imagist
poetry and its theories, it can be demonstrated that the
I
: influence of the haiku on Pound's Imagist poems was of
some small yet important value in his whole Imagist
activity.
On the other hand, if one looks for firm evidence
of imitation of the haiku in Pound's poems, he may fail.
It is true that because Pound neither read nor spoke
62
Japanese, his misconception and ignorance of the proper
prosodic nature of the haiku was much in evidence, even
though he had read the studies and the translations of
the haiku made by other scholars. In addition, Pound
cannot be categorized among those who sympathized with
content of the haiku. He has his own way always, as
every genius does. But in his own way, Pound intuitively
discovered one of the main characteristics of the haiku:
the super-pository structure of imagery. He used this
structure in his short poems, as evidenced in the manner
of his metro poem.
Yet, the function and purpose of the use of this
characteristic structural form, is different in Pound's
short poems and in the haiku. Pound obviously uses this
structure of imagery in a technical way to create a
“precision" of expression with the “smallest possible
number of words," whereas the haiku poet employs it very
spontaneously to convey a perceptual truth which incar
nates a harmonious and unified state between mind and
nature. For Pound, this structure aims at the precise
presentation of a state of mind, “the intellectual and
emotional complex in an instant of time"; the natural
objects and images in the short poems constructed in this
64
form are creations to convey perceptual impact and to
reveal the poetfs interpretation crystallized in his
formulated and figurative language. In this sense,
Pound's natural images function in a very subjective way.
In Japanese poetry, although the natural images and
objects of the haiku are used in creative perception,
there is a very specific attitude toward nature. This is
1 introduced by the seasonal element in most haiku. By
virtue of this seasonal sense, the haiku creates a mood
of poetic imagery and also unifies the juxtaposed and
scattered meanings, while extending each meaning. This
peculiar prosodic feature of the haiku derives from the
very inclusive concept of nature in the Japanese culture,
which was not understood by Pound.
I
; Although the relationship of Pound's short Imagist
poems to the haiku is significant in many ways, the inci- ;
dental encounter of Pound with the haiku was one of the
I
i
; first important meetings of Western and Eastern litera-
)
! tures. The haiku was the form which opened Pound's eyes
, • 1
to other Eastern literature, such as the Japanese No play !
I
I
and Chinese poetry. As a result of this encounter. Pound
played the role of a bridge-builder between West and East— 1
parts of the world which had existed in unrelated circum
stances for a thousand years. As a literary hunter and
cultural missionary, Pound may be seen as an important
contributor to the communication between the Western and
Eastern cultures.
By way of conclusion, the following lines from
Pound*s Canto XV may serve to indicate that the effects
of his contact with the Japanese haiku reached further
in his own work than the few short poems of his “Imagist"
period, and that communication between disparate cultures
still allows us hope for enlarging our horizons:
The blossoms of the apricot
blow from the east to the west,
And I have tried to keep them from falling.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Primary Sources
Pound, Ezra. "A Few Don*ts by An Imagiste." Poetry, I
(March. 1913), 200-206.
• ______. "Editorial Comment: Status Rerun.“ Poetry, I
(January 1913), 123-127.
________ . “Edward Wadsworth., Vorticist." The Egoist, I
(June 1914).
________ . Impact: Essays on Ignorance and Decline of
American Civilization. Ed. by Noel Stock. Chicago:
Henry Regnery Co., 1960.
________ . Literary Essays of Ezra Pound. Ed. by T. S.
Eliot. New York: New Direction, 1954.
________ . The Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941. Ed. by
D. D. Paige. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.,
1950.
________ . Personae: The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound,
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67
68
II. Primary Materials in Japanese
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Hairon-shu (A Collection of Critical Essays of Renga
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Matsuo, Basho. Basho ku-shu (The Collected Poems of
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. Basho bun-shu (The Collected Essays and Letters
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Aston, W. G. A History of Japanese Literature. London,
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Balakian, Anna. "Influence and Literary Fortune: The
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Comparative and General Literature, XI (1962), 24-31.
Block, Haskell M. "The Concept of Influence in Compara
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General Literature, VII (1958), 30-37.
Blyth, R. H. Haiku. 4 vols. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949,
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Chamberlain, B. H. Japanese Poetry. London: John
Murray, 1910.
Coffman, Stanley K., Jr. Imagism: A Chapter for the ;
History of Modern Poetry. Norman, Okla.: University!
of Oklahoma Press, 1951. j
!
j
Flint, Frank S. "History of Imagism." The Egoist, II 1
(May 1, 1915), 70-71. 1
i
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Henderson, H. G. An Introduction to Haiku; An Anthology
of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki. New York:
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Hughes, Glenn. Imagism and Imagists: A Study in Modern
Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 19 31.
Jackson, Thomas H. The Early Poetry of Ezra Pound.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.
Janeira, Armando M. Japanese and Western Literature: A
Comparative Study. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1970.
Keene, Donald. Japanese Literature: An Introduction for
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Miner, Earl. The Japanese Tradition in British and
American Literature. Princeton: Princeton Univer
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________ . “Pound, Haiku, and the Image." The Hudson
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Pratt, William C., ed. The Imagist Poem: Modern Poetry
in Miniature. New York: Dutton, 1963.
Stock, Noel. The Life of Ezra Pound. New York: Pantheon
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Ueda, Makoto. Zeami, Basho, Yeats, Pound: A Study in
Japanese and English Poetics. The Hague: Mouton &
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________ . “Basho and the Poetics of Haiku." Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism, XXI (Summer, 1963),
423-431.
________ . “The Modes of Progression in English and
Japanese Poetry." Yearbook of Comparative and
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Creator Iwahara, Yasuo (author)

Core Title The relation of Pound's short imagist poems to the haiku

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Comparative Literature

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag comparative literature,literature, American,OAI-PMH Harvest

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Advisor Clothier, Peter J. (committee chair), Kimizuka, Sumako (committee member), Rainof, Alexandre (committee member)

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