In a message dated 3/1/01 11:45:41 AM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:
> Browning's Sordello and Ezra Pound by Stephen Brown
> Doctoral Dissertation Index Page
>
> As Wayne Koestenbaum proves, the
> poem goes on to make clear the analogy between Eliot and Pound's
> collaboration on The Waste Land and the homosexual act.
I have the Koestenbaum book (at home, not here), and I wouldn't use the
word "proves". As I remember the book, Koestenbaum begins by quoting the
same lines of "Sage Homme" that Nancy did:
These are the poems of Eliot
By the Uranian Muse begot;
A Man their Mother was,
A Muse their Sire.
How did the printed Infancies result
From Nuptials thus doubly difficult?
If you must needs enquire
Know diligent Reader
That on each Occasion
Ezra performed the caesarean Operation
Koestenbaum then states that these lines clearly mean that POUND is declaring
HIMSELF (i.e., Pound) the male muse of TWL. I think that's a basic
misreading. I read the lines the same way that Nancy does, namely, "the Muse
is also made male along with Eliot the male mother. Pound's male-nurse role
is simply a third to make the seemingly impossible birth possible." That is,
Pound is a third party (a male mid-wife) to the birth of TWL, a poem
conceived (according to "Sage Homme") between the artist (Eliot) and his male
(Uranian) muse.
-- Steve --
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