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Ezra Pound (October 30, 1885-November 1, 1972)



Note: The bracketed page numbers for non-Cantos materials are taken from the Library of America edition of Pound's Poems and Translations. The Canto page numbers are taken from the thirteenth printing (1995) of the New Directions edition of The Cantos of Ezra Pound.


The Harvard Vocarium Readings Recorded in Cambridge, Mass., May 17, 1939

1. Sestina: Altaforte (with drums) (3:40); text [105]
2. The Seafarer (with drums) (7:08); text [236]
3. Homage to Sextus Propertius, Section VI (2:44) [535-36]
4. E.P.: Ode Pour L'Election de Son Sepulchre (2:45)
5. II, IV, & V (2:59)
6. Yeux Glauques (1:11)
7. Envoi (1919) (from "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" at the end of Part I) (1:32)
8. First two sections of Part II of the poem ["1920 (Mauberley)"] (3:07)

9. Cantico del sole (0:58) [572] 
10. Canto XVII ("So that the vine burst from my fingers')(7:00) [76-79]
11. Canto XXX (0:58) [147]
12. Canto XLV (3:12) [229-30]
13. Canto LVI (19:30) [301-310]

Thanks to Don Share, Curator in the G.E. Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard, for assistance.


From the Radio Speeches
Recorded in Rome, Italy, Jan. or Feb., 1942

Canto XLVI (17:08) [231-235]

Recorded by the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] on February 12, 1942. The editors wish to thank Ben Friedlander.


The Caedmon Recordings
Recorded in Washington, D.C., June 12, 13, 26, 1958

 1. Exile's Letter (5:08) [254]
2. The Gypsy (0:53) [296]
3. Cantico del Sole  (0:49) [572]
4. Moeurs Contemporaines (5:50);   text of this poem [522-526]
5. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (10:45) [549-556]
6. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (6:06) [557-562]
7. Canto I ("And then went down") (5:32) [3-5]
8. Canto IV ("Palace in smoky light") (7:31) [13-16]
9. Canto XXXVI ("A lady asks me") (6:41) [177-180]
10. Canto XLV ("With Usura") (3:13) [229-30]
11. Canto LI (""Shines / in the mind of heaven") (3:56) [250-52]
12. Canto LXXXIV ("8th October: Si tuit li dolh elh plor") (5:35) [557-560]
13. From Canto LXXVI ("And the sun high over horizon ...") (4:11) [477-480]
14. Canto XCIX  ( "Till the blue grass turn yellow") (23:37) [714-732]

These 1958 recordings are from Ezra Pound Reads by Ezra Pound copyright © 1960, 1969, 1993 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins.

The Bayrischer Rundfunk Recordings
Recorded at Schloss Brunnenburg, Tirolo di Merano, Italy, December 1959

  1. Impressions of François-Marie Arouet (de Voltaire), I (“Phyllidula and the Spoils of Gouvernet”) (0:45) [315]
  2. Impressions, II (“To Madame du Châtelet”) (1:21) [316]
  3. Impressions, III (“To Madame Lullin”) (0:39) [317]
  4. Impressions, III (“To Madame Lullin,” German translation) (0:46) [317]
  5. “Der Wirbel” (German trans. of “Phanopoeia, I”) (0:45) [565]
  6. “Es starben” (German trans. of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, I, V”) (0:40) [552]
  7. Unedited tapes of the 1959 Brunnenburg recordings: include tracks 1-6 above, as well as Pound reading the German trans. of “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, I, I and dialogue between Pound, Eva Hesse, and Mike O’Donnell. (17:31)

Recorded by Eva Hesse and Mike O’Donnell for the Bayrischer Rundfunk. Used by permission of Eva Hesse.


The Spoleto Readings
Recorded in Spoleto, Italy, summer 1967

1. Canto III ("I sat on Dogana's steps") (2:55) [11-12]
2. Canto XVI ("And before hell mouth") (13:06) [68-75]
3. Canto XLIX ("For the seven lakes ...") (3:04) [244-45]
4. Canto LXXXI ("Zeus lies in Ceres' bosom") (First Reading) (9:56) [537-52]
5. Canto LXXXI (Second Reading) (10:07) [537-52]
6. Canto XCII ("And from this mount were blown" (6:36) [638-642]
7. Canto CVI ("And was her daughter like that") (6:24) [772-775]
8. From Canto CXV ("The scientists are in terror") (1:10) [814]


The Confucian Odes
Recorded in Spoleto, Italy, summer 1970 (?)

1. Hid! Hid! (0:47) [755]
2. O omen tree 0:40 [758]
3. Kylin's foot (0:22) [760]
4. In fleecy coats (0:41) [763]
5. Lies a dead deer (0:35) [765]
6. Dry grass, in vale (0:23) [792]
7. Alikter-Ole Brer Rabbit watchin' his feet (0:23) [792]
8. Hep-Cat Chung (0:45) [795]
9. On comes her car (1:07) [807]
10. Garden peach (0:45) [810]
11. I climb the knoll (0:52) [810]
12. RATS (1:00) [812]
13. Lonely pear tree (0:25) [817]
14. Chariots, rank on rank (0:37) [819]
15. What! No clothes? (0:37) [823]
16. Lord of the Light's axe (0:35) [860]
17. Yaller bird (0:53) [861]
18. Heaven's worry (1:51) [872]
19. Let the Great Cart alone (0:29) [885]
20. The year puts on her shining robe (1:05) [894]
21. Flies, blue flies on a fence rail (0:32) [898]
22. Folk worn out (2:10) [936]
23. Show of respect (6:17) [941]
24. Compassionate heaven (1:37) [962]
25. Thick, all in mass (1:23) [986]

Please note that the bracketed page numbers for the Confucian Odes are keyed to page numbers in Library of America's Poems & Translations. Confucian Odes ©1970 by Olga Rudge.


An Angle
Recorded in Venice, ca. 1970 or 1971

1. Canto XVII (1:40)
(From "A boat came" [77] through "In the gloom" [78])
2. Canto XXV (1:19)
(From "side toward the pizza" to "finish said canvas"  [119])
3. Canto XXVI (4:32)
(Three segments: from "And that year" [123] through "beards of those greeks" [124]; from "To the Marquis" through Carpathio/pictore [127]; from "And I came here" through "taking light in the darkness" [121])

Recorded by Santomaso for the Erker-Galerie, St. Gallen, Switzerland


Miscellaneous Recordings
San Ambrogio and Venice, 1962-1972
1. Redondillas (20:31) [LOA, 175-182]
2. from Canto LXXX (8:38)
(from "Nenni, Nenni" [515] through "the nutriment" [519])
3. From Canto LXXXVIII (10:05)
(from "It was Saturday" [597] through "The Major done told them" [602])
4. Canto XCIII (17:32)
("A man's paradise is his good nature" [643-652])
5. From Canto XCVI (20:05)
(from "Kredemon" [671] through "oikonomia" [680])
6. from Canto CXI (1:49)
(from "Cold mermaid" through "Rothar" [803])
7. from Canto CXII (2:36) [804-805]
8. Addendum for C (4:11) [818-19]
9. Now sun rises in Ram sign (1:00) [820]
10. Dante Speech (1965) with readings from T.S. Eliot and Robert Lowell (6:04)

The readings were recorded by Olga Rudge from 1962-1972 and remastered under her supervision by Robert Hughes in the fall of 1985. They are available through the assistance of Robert Hughes and by courtesy of Siegfried Walter de Rachewiltz. Special thanks to Richard Sieburth.

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. Except as indicated above, all rights to this recorded material belong to, and are © 2006 by, the heirs of Ezra Pound, Mary de Rachewiltz and Omar S. Pound, and New Directions Publishing Corp, agent for the heirs. All recordings on this page are used with permission of the heirs and New Directions Publishing Corp. Distributed by PennSound & UbuWeb