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The Edge of the World
It's not easy to catch the reference at first, but when Odysseus talks about sailing into "the Kimmerian lands" (12) at the beginning of Canto I, he's alluding to the lands belonging to the Cimmerii, who were a mythical people living at the edge of the world. Remember that people long ago thought the world was flat and that there was an actual cliff or waterfall at the end of the world you could fall off. According to the poet Homer, the Cimmerii were a people who lived in constant darkness and mist, which Pound refers to by describing the Cimmerian cities as being "Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever/ With glitter of sun-rays" (12-14). By having Odysseus travel to the darkest edge of the Earth, Pound sets the tone for his Cantos project as a whole, telling us readers that we're going to go on a journey that won't always take us to the nicest of places.
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