Pound's eye for emerging talent put poets like Robert Frost and, later, T.S. There are more variations too. Student VideoA pretty decent video enacting "The River-Merchant's Wife.". A Young PoundHe's rocking an awesome mustache and hairdo. He wanted to shake things up, to get the world to think about poetry from a new perspective. This opening stanza of 6 lines is organized around a central image of the river-merchant and his wife as a child, confirmed by the first component of the central image: the picture of a little girl with her hair cut in bangs. In part, the book was the result of Pound's collaboration with a dead guy. He made his first visits to Europe with his family in 1898 and 1902. But he was a known in the art world as a vibrant personality and radical thinker. The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter Introduction. The speaker’s mood has similarities to the well-known poem too, but there are differences. I wanted to tell a story that worked as a song, one that would pull the listener in and bring forward in both the text and performance the wider meaning of what is said by the river merchant’s wife in this purported letter. Eliot on the literary map. And we went on living in the village of Chōkan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. Many works of Pound’s time use a different scheme to render the same poet’s name as Li Po. While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead. His early work was poorly received and was a bit preoccupied with an outdated Victorian style. ( Log Out / You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums. Lowering my head, I looked at the wall. That's the method by which the DJ mixes beats and hooks from multiple songs and transforms them into a brand new musical experience (for a great example, check out The Gray Album, by Danger Mouse). *I’m sure some have written critiques on this basis, because there is matter there for this, including that the wife is a teenager (though the poem indicates the husband is roughly the same age.) Be patient with me, reader. After Li Po. *** The poem he produced from Li Bai’s work is a loose translation, missing nuance that more informed scholars find in the original. Throughout this piece, the wife recalls memories of how their love progressed and how she longs for her husband's return. Until the publication of Cathay in 1915, Ezra Pound was not really known for his poetry. Maybe when nobody was looking? **Li Bai is the now preferred way to write the poet’s name in western characters. I wonder if anyone has written that the husband’s absence is based on the needs of commerce, asking if this is a veiled attack on capitalism or a cultured acceptance of it? The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter. Bio + MoreHere's a biography, selected works, and a long list for further reading. Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885, and raised in Philadelphia, the son of Homer Loomis Pound and Isabel Weston Pound.