Canto VII

Who Else But Pound?

If Pound is trying to hide the fact that he's the speaker of Canto VII, he's not doing a very good job. Even the most skeptical reader in the world would have to say that if the speaker isn't Pound himself, then he's some sort of poet-hero who is very (and we mean very) similar to Pound. But that always tends to be the case with lyric poetry. Quite often, the speaker tends to harbor the same feelings and thoughts as the poet.

Besides, who else would know all of the obscure references and allusions that Pound so generously sprinkles all through this poem? Whether he's quoting about "Le vieux commode en acajou" from Gustave Flaubert, or speaking about someone's slow and honest eyes ["gli occhi onesti e tardi"] in Italian, Pound gives us the strong feeling that whoever is speaking in this poem has the exact same body of knowledge as Pound. So you can see how it's not a big leap to connect the speaker to Pound himself.