Hugh Selwyn Mauberley by Ezra Pound | Structure, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley by Ezra Pound | Structure, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Hugh Selwyn Maubereley’ is a long poem by Ezra Pound that was first published in 1920. It is a long poem containing 397 lines. Pound referred to the poem as an attempt to “condense a {Henry} James novel.” Pound said that the poem was modeled on the technique used by Henry James in his fiction: it presents its subject through the medium of a character's mind or voice, a "center of consciousness" that assesses the subject in question.

The consists of eighteen short poems that can be treated as stanzas. The poem is written in past tense and is narrated from a third-person omniscient perspective. The poem is an autobiographical content in which Ezra Pound discusses his own life, failure, and success as a writer and his views on arts, literature, modernism, and other historical prospects and events. Some critics have mentioned Hugh Selwyn Mauberley as a ‘quintessential autobiography.’ Pound reached London in August 1908 and began working there. After finishing Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, he swiftly left England.

In the poem, Pound introduces E.P. and Hugh Selwyn Mauberley as fictional characters who appear to be his own alter egos. E.P. and Mauberley can be thought of as different versions of Pound. Part 2 explores Mauberley's psychological experience as a poet.

Structure of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:

The whole poem is divided into two parts. The first part contains 12 sections that can be treated as short poems or stanzas. Part 1 of the poem follows Pound's alter ego E.P. around London and Paris as he engages in conversations about writing and gaining recognition for poetry. The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue, a form which Pound borrowed from Robert Browning and then later adapted and described as a ‘dramatic lyric.’

The title of the first section is "E.P. Ode pour l'élection de son sépulchre" (E.P. Ode for the Choice of His Tomb). The next four sections (II-V) are titled as Ran numerals. The sixth through ninth sections of "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" are named with capitalized phrases and names rather than numerals. In these sections, Pound offers a brief overview of British culture as he found it when he arrived in London in 1908. Sections 10, 11, and 12 sections are again titled with Roman Numerals. The thirteenth section is titled Envoi which represents the end of the first part. Generally, ‘Envoi ’ is a stanza or a set of stanzas at the end of the poem. However, Pound used it not as the end of his poem but rather as a mid-station for the termination of the first part of his poem.

Part 2 begins with the title "Mauberley 1920" in which he introduces his second alter ego Hugh Selwyn Mauberley as a fictional character. Part 2 is also narrated from a third-person omniscient narrative. The first and second sections of Part 2 are titled Roman Numerals while the third section is titled ‘The Age Demanded.’ The fourth section is again titled a Roman numeral and then Pound offers a ‘farewell poem’ at the end titled Medallion.

The poem is a long-form, free-verse, complicated, scholarly poem that expresses the poet’s feelings and thoughts. As he bids farewell to the city of London, Pound also says goodbye to using traditional forms of poetry in favor of more individual, creative forms. The poem is written in traditional four-line stanzas (quatrains) and employs an ABAB rhyme scheme, but there is no meter within the lines. Pound has used a lot of allusions in the poem.

Summary of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:

The poem begins with an Epigraph "Vocat aestus in umbram" taken from the "Fourth Eclogue" of Nemesianus, a third-century Latin poet, and it translates as "The heat calls us into the shade," which suggests that the poet is willing to discuss the problems he is facing.

Part 1 Section 1 Lines 1-20

Section one is titled "E.P. Ode pour l'élection de son sépulchre" which is in French, meaning, E.P. Ode for the Choice of His Tomb. The title appears pessimistic as if it is a last farewell from a guy who's had enough of the world. The title suggests as if it is a suicide note. This is a reference to Pound's feeling that his poetry underwent a major change when he left London at age 31. E.P.'s poetry had not become popular with his peers because it was out of step with what was in fashion at the time. E.P. had tried to change the nature of poetry, but he failed and died young.

The first short poem consists of 20 lines set in five quatrains with a rhyming scheme of ABAB but irregular meter.

The speaker begins by introducing E.P. as a struggling poet who has been working hard for the last three years but it appears as if E.P. is ‘out of key with his time.’ E.P. "strove to resuscitate the dead art/ Of poetry," that is, he tried to make poetry relevant again while the people were losing interest in poetry. E.P. tried to maintain "'the sublime'/ In the old sense.” Pound uses Allusion in Line 8, comparing E.P. to Capaneus, a warrior in Greek mythology who tried to win over the city of Thebes but Zeus got angry and killed him with a lightning bolt. Pound feels that E.P. was a bit cocky in thinking that he could change the perception of the world towards poetry.

Line 9 (Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie) is written in Ancient Greek which means "For we know all things suffered in Troy," and it's the first line of the Sirens' song in Homer's Odyssey. The poet compares E.P. with Odysseus who survived the Sirens because his ears were closed by candlewax, but E.P. had an ‘unstopped ear,’ so his fall was imminent. Pound continues the allusion in the next quatrain and mentions Penelope, wife of Odyssey. E.P.'s true Penelope or love was Gustav Flaubert, a French writer of the Nineteenth century.

Section 2 Lines 21-32

Again, it is a short poem consisting of 12 lines set in three quatrains. The speaker criticizes the current time and the age in which he lives and the public who could not appreciate the poetry E.P. He writes that the people of his time want to see in the arts an extreme version of their own miserable experience of life, stating "The age demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace." He feels that the masses desire poetry and literature that reflect what he judges to be an overly industrialized, modern, and false society.

E.P. strived to revive some sense of classic beauty and morals in modern poetry but he found that the modern age is not interested in beauty at all, but only conflicts. The modern age demands “an image/ Of its accelrated grimace.” The modern world doesn’t care about anything that tries to make people think deeply about their lives, rather they prefer “better mendacities” or lies, and thus, ignore the truth.

Section 3 Lines 33-60

Section 3 consists of 28 lines set in 7 quatrains in which the narrator offers many references to ancient Greek, Roman, Shakespearean, and Christian stories and mentions pairs of characters who are considered moral and immoral to suggest that the past was morally superior to the present. The poem comments on modern society's lack of quality and morals. While the arts and religion once led society in meaningful ways, Pound feels that his own society is characterized by "a tawdry cheapness." E.P. lacks a "god, man, or hero" at a time when leadership is sorely needed.

In Quatrain 1, line 36, Pound mentions ‘Sappho’s barbitos.’ Barbitos means poems. Sappho was a 6th-century B.C.E. poet. The narrator suggests Sappho as a model of classic poetic beauty.

In the next stanza, the narrator complains that true passion isn’t appreciated in the modern world. Christ’s model of sacrifice has overtaken Dionysus’ model of passion. While poetry is about passion, true passion has "Made way for macerations." That is, a passionate poet like E.P. suffers hunger and starvation. Pound also mentions Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher.

Pound says that modern people too like beauty (Toh Kalon) but they seek beauty in the marketplace, they are too materialistic, and beauty in the modern world is determined by market forces.

Section 4 Lines 61-85

In this part, Pound discards the quatrain form and begins with two lines and an ellipsis. The narrator mentions the widespread death and trauma Europe had just experienced during World War I (1914–1918). He reviews the reasons why young men go to war, such as "for adventure" and "from fear of weakness." Even those soldiers who had gone to war "for love of slaughter, in the imagination" ended up hurt and disillusioned by this brutal conflict. Pound depicts the surviving soldiers returning from World War I as having "walked eye-deep in hell" and then coming home to a damaged, corrupt society. E.P. expresses grief about the death, hurt, and trauma that he and his entire generation experienced as a result of the war.

Section 5 Lines 86-93

It is a short section or poem consisting of 8 lines in which the narrator describes European society as "an old bitch gone in the teeth" and "a botched civilization." Pound writes that "a myriad" of people had died in the war, but the achievements of humanity do not at all justify such a gigantic loss of human life. Pound denigrates modern culture even though he is clearly a devotee of the arts and scholarly knowledge. E.P. feels let down by human society, as represented by Pound's description of it as "two gross of broken statues" and "a few thousand battered books."

YEUX GLAUQUES Lines 94-117

In this section, Pound returned to the quatrain form. Yeux Glauques means ‘sea green eyes’ or grey eyes. In line 95, he mentions William Ewart Gladstone, a former prime minister of Britain, and criticizes him and the society. John Ruskin criticized British society and said that the British were a terrible society full of people who hated literature, art, beauty, and human compassion. He published ‘King’s Treasuries’ in which he attacked the government but the crooked Prime Minister Gladstone remained unfettered and well-respected. He further mentions Robert Buchanan who criticized the works of poets like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Swineburn while they deserved much more respect. Pound criticizes prominent British writers and critics from the past and describes their "vacant gaze." The color grey commonly represents old age, sadness, and emptiness.

“SIENA MI FE’, DISFECEMI MAREMMA” Lines 118-137

The title of the 7th section is an Italian phrase taken from a story in Divine Comedy, an epic poem by Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), a classic work about purgatory and hell that was written in the 1300s. The quote translates to "Siena made me, Maremma unmade me." A female character in Dante's Divine Comedy is speaking here about the speaker's transformation from her birth in Siena to her death in Maremma, two Italian cities. Pound may have related this line to his own transformations from his life in the United States through the years he spent developing as a poet in London.

BRENNEBAUM Lines 138-145

Pound continues with the quatrain form in this section. In this section, Pound makes a personal attack on Max Beerbohm, a British humorist and essayist who was Jewish by religion. The narrator mentions him as Brennebaum while making an antisemitic portrayal of him. Beerbohm wrote essays full of parodies and sarcastic caricatures of London's literary elite, including Pound and his contemporaries. Pound may have detested Beerbohm because of his satirical criticisms, but he limits his description of Brennebaum to negative physical characteristics, including "limpid eyes," a "circular infant's face," and "stiffness." Pound closes this section while making references to the Jewish religion as he mentions “Horeb, Sinai, and the forty years,” an allusion to the biblical story of the 40 years that Moses and the Jewish people spent in the desert. He then offers an ironic nickname to Beerbohm as ‘Brennebaum ‘The Impeccable.’

MR. NIXON Lines 146-169

In this section, the narrator mentions a wealthy literary critic named Mr. Nixon who invites E.P. into the “cream glided cabin of his steam yacht” to advise him on how and on what to write. Mr. Nixon says that E.P. must concentrate only on what the reviewers will say about his work. He asserts that the reviewers have no knowledge of good art or good writing, but they are influential. Mr. Nixon says that without the help of the reviewers, there is no money to be made as a writer. He advises, whenever you write something, make sure that the person you're writing for is the person who's going to review your book.

He says that the main struggle for the writers is to gain the attention and approval of the reviewers. He mentions Mr. Dunas as one of the toughest reviewers and advises E.P. to sell his pen to attain success. Mr. Nixon advises E.P. to quit writing poetry and verses as there is no value in it, or it will earn no money for E.P. The narrator then ends the discussion of Mr. Nixon with three dots and mentions a friend of Blougrham who advised the same to him. Blougrham is a character from Robert Browning’s poem ‘Bishop Blougram’s Apology.’

Section 10 Lines 170-181

Ezra Pound again returned to Roman Numeral for the title of the sections of his long poem Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. In section 10, the narrator tells about "the stylist," an idealized artist who is "unpaid, uncelebrated" but content and close to nature. The stylist "offers succulent cooking" and enjoys his "placid and uneducated mistress." Pound seems to say that this simple man has more pleasure and peace in his life than most of the more refined members of society he describes in the poem.

Section 11 Lines 182-189

In this section, Pound again praises the ancient past while criticizing the present time and behavior of people. To do so, he makes a reference to a “Conservatrix,” a woman who guards and keeps things safe. Pound is not a fan of modern women. Pound says it's an exaggeration to compare any modern woman with one from the world of Ancient Greece. The reason for this is that modern women no longer have the instincts these ancient women once had. Instead, all they have are the instincts and behaviors that their grandmothers told them would "fit their station," or be appropriate for their social class.

Section 12 Lines 190-217

In this section, Pound portrays London's wealthy women of the time who ran literary gatherings of people in their homes to discuss and enjoy literature, music, and ideas. The Lady Valentine is a stand-in for such women. E.P. portrays her as materialistic and vain. Pound seems to imply that these women know little about the poetry they enjoy and sometimes financially sponsor. He refers to London as a city in which "the sale of half-hose has / Long since superseded the cultivation / Of Pierian roses." London society values socks more than the beautiful art represented by the reference to the ancient Greek Pierian Spring, a mythological body of water that inspired art and music.

Section 13 Envoi (1919) Lines 218-243

Pound ends the first part of his long poem with Envoi. An envoi is a short summary verse that traditionally ended certain French forms of poetry. This section takes a completely different form from the rest of the modern, disjointed work. Pound creates a version of a lyrical British poem from the 1600s. Pound uses an old-fashioned poetic style to reflect on the passage of time, life, death, and art.

Part 2 Section 1 Lines 244-259

Pound ended Part 1 with an end note Envoi (1919)suggesting that his alter ego E.P. ended there and this second part is written by someone else, his own other alter ego who is named Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. Mauberley is a bit different from E.P. Mauberley is less confident than E.P. as an artist. He is generally frustrated both artistically and personally. He is much more inward-looking than E.P. His section focuses more on his thoughts about art and life than on other people as E.P. did. While E.P. appeared to be rebellious and criticizing, Mauberley appears self-criticizing.

He begins Part 2 in the same manner mentioning Hugh’s true love or Penelop was Gustav Flaubert. But unlike E.P. Hugh’s favorite tool was the engraver’s tool. Hugh turned his eyes from “eau-forte” a famous art piece towards the ‘strait head Of Messalina.’ Messalina was the beautiful wife of Roman Emperor Claudius who murdered her. Messalina’s face was engraved on Roman coins.

In this section, Pound scathingly criticizes artists (Pier Francesca and Antonio Pisalleno) who create metal medallions of beautiful women's faces. The medallion relates to a central theme Pound explores throughout the poem regarding how artists and writers use language in new ways to express modern realities. Pound's goal was to create a new movement in the arts within Modernism, called Imagism. Later, artist Pound did not approve of laying claim to the Imagist title, so he developed the term Vorticism. Each of these movements within Literary Modernism centered on the idea of one image perfectly expressed in words that use only the words that are absolutely required. The medallion is a single visual image full of beauty and serves as a symbol for the kind of poetry and art that Pound thought was ideal.

Section 2 Lines 260-296

In this section, Pound deals with Mauberley's dissatisfaction with his tendency to get overwhelmed by the beauty of the natural world at the expense of other people and his art. He faces "estrangement," and his sense of having "drifted on" is hinted at with many sets of ellipses, or three periods that can indicate an omission, a pause, or a thought trailing off.

THE AGE DEMANDED Lines 297-356

Pound didn’t use Roman numerals for the title of this poem, rather titled it The Age Demanded. The narrator begins explaining the frustration of Hugh Mauberley by alluding to the Cytherean, also known as the goddess Aphrodite, the epitome of beauty. In Greek mythology, mythical Greek doves with ‘red-beaked steeds’ pulled the chariot of the Cytherean. However, while doing so, they couldn’t see the goddess, the epitome of beauty. The same is the case of Mauberley. He knows and understands the true beauty of poetry. But he is forced to turn his back on it to pull it and bring it into the modern world of fashion. However, his efforts are not working and are proving to be ‘social inconsequence.’ In Part 1 of the same long poem, Pound used the same phrase (The Age Demanded) to express his frustration with the current age which demands art that is simple and cheap. In the first part, E.P. engaged in literary circles and tried to bring change, and failed, but Hugh Mauberley is different. Instead of engaging in a literary society like E.P., Mauberley isolates himself and dwells on feeling rejected. He deeply resents "his final / Exclusion from the world of letters.”

Section 4 Lines 357-381

In this section, Pound creates a picture of a lush forest through his words. A river flows slowly by in the mist. Flowers and flamingos show that it is a warm, even tropical climate. Mauberley muses that he might have been a "hedonist," or person who only seeks pleasure. He stops himself from accepting such a thought with the quip "I was / And I no more exist; / Here drifted a hedonist." Mauberley realizes that even though he fantasizes about the indulgent life of a hedonist, he would rather be a writer and leave a lasting legacy through art and poetry.

MEDALLION Lines 382-397

In the last section, Pound returns to the allusion to the engraver’s tools and medallion makers that he discussed at the beginning of Part 2. Pound describes the eternal beauty of the woman's face that the ancient Greek medallion maker portrays in metal. The medallion captures a single, beautiful moment in time. Pound hopes to create poetry that is lasting and meaningful through the ages like the medallion.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!