I certainly agree about the Homage -- a tremendous achievement, in which
I think he made that "first heave" referred to in the Pisan Cantos:
To brerak the pentameter,
	that was the first heave

(Quoted from memory; line spacing & punctuation a she4er guess.)

Incidentally, "Lustra" as a whole (thesection in Personae, not the
original book) is a sort of dress rehersal for Propertius and the
Cantos. The poet is eagerly looking into faces, searching for that Helen
(cf. Near Perigord) who is order and beauty and destruction, failing to
find more than glimpses of her (as in Shop Girl), ending with a return
to de Born's lady. (This all from memory; too messy to get out the book
and the huge magnifier.)  This is that Eleanor, _elenaus_ (sp?) partial
glimpses of whom/which help structure the Cantos. I think the preying
mantis of the Pisan Cantos is her. And she (as law) is what John Adams
must dig for with his fingers as no one will lend him a pick-axe.

Carrol

Richard Seddon wrote:
> 
> Carrol
> 
> I agree with you about "Near Periogord", however, I would suggest consideration also be given for "In a Station Of the Metro" and "The Game of Chess" as twin ushers for modernism.  Hugh Witemeyer called "In a station of the Metro" the "program poem" for Imagism and "The Game of Chess" the "program poem" for Vorticism.  (pg 38 of "The Poetry of Ezra Pound: Forms and Renewal, 1908-1920" by Hugh Witemeyer)
> 
> Personally I think Pound challenged Eliot with "Homage to Sextus Propertius" if not with "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley".
> 
> Rick Seddon
> Portales, NM