Mr. Pound...

Hello world!

I am still riding the high that I got from seeing my favourite band Billy Talent in concert last night. It was the fourth time I've seen them live, and I was still blown away and amazed. I don't think I will love anything as much as I love that band....perhaps my own children someday, but who knows. Despite the craptastic weather (seriously Spring, wtf?) I made it there with only a few blips in the trip. It was my first time actually busing out to the Scotiabank Place, and it was terrible, as the one bus that took us directly there broke down, and a friend and I had to ask directions and take other buses and walk forever in order to get there though. Thank goodness I decided to leave early.  The concert was well worth the trouble, and even the crazy mosh-pit pushing fest was tolerable. I cried...yep. I cried at a punk rock concert. They played my favourite song "Surrender" and I lost it. I just couldn't help myself. I earned many weird looks from the other concert goers.

That was just a side note, to tell you what has gotten me jazzed. I really needed that concert as a reward after finishing all my essays for the term and as a little break before I get into exams. .

Now, for the real meat and potatoes of this post. In my Reading Poetry course in University, we studied a well known poet named Ezra Pound. I was familiar with a few of his works, mainly his poem "In a Station of the Metro":

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

I had studied this poem in my grade 12 course on literature. ( I ended up taking three English courses in grade 12, yes I am one of those kids). However, for this Poetry class, we looked at Pound's The Pisan Cantos--which he wrote while imprisoned in a war camp during WW2 (not a concentration camp, but a camp where American or allied soldiers that tried to desert went, to be "refitted" to go back into the trenches). He was an old man at the time, and was put under horrible conditions.
Ohh, I suppose it is worth mentioning that he was put in that prison because he put anti-american propaganda out on a radio station, and he was a huge supporter of Mussolini.
Anywho, in these Pisan Cantos, Pound comes off as crazy and is very difficult to understand. My professor even told us that when Pound set out the work he told critics and people that he didn't expect them to understand him for more than three-five lines of text at a time.  (these Cantos take up an full book). So, in this class we had to write an essay, comparing things and juxtaposing things in Pound's work and we had to determine why he wrote things as he did. It was so tempting to just write "He was crazy" and hand the assignment in, but alas I could not. I'm no where near that brave. So i ended up creating some b.s. about Pound painting himself as an Epic Hero. The ability to bullshit and pull points and arguments out of your ass is a necessary skill for anyone in English, even if just doing a English minor, like I am.

So, in summary: I still love Billy Talent. I hate Ezra Pound and I don't regard him as one of the most amazing poets ever....he is one of my least favourite. He is batshit crazy, and makes things difficult for us poor students expected to understand and analyze his work.

Exam time is on, so my posts might be sparse. I've already wrote one, which I think went really well.

Keep it Classy!!

xoxoxo
Becca