Ezra Pound's Comparative Poetics

In his paper, "Ezra Pound's Comparative Poetics," Naikan Tao concentrates on Pound's theories regarding comparison and examines the significance of his comparative studies to the formulation of his poetics, an aspect that has not been sufficiently investigated. On the basis of Pound's work, Tao observes that the conception of comparison Pound shaped through his comparative studies is the internal principle that governs the presentation of details and particulars, the method Pound advocated as a reader-oriented approach to truth and as an efficient, self-reliant means to avoid others' generalization and discursive presentation. Pound's view of comparison as an epistemological norm -"acquisition and transmission of knowledge" -is fundamental to the formulation of his poetics, especially his ideogrammic method. This accounts for the ultimate law that controls the fragmentation in The Cantos. As Pound's view of comparison as a stimulus to invention underlies his cosmopolitan endeavor to establish universal criteria, so does his view of comparison as an epistemological mode underpin his poetics. This examination thus clarifies to a certain degree the importance of Pound's pioneer comparativism to his poetics. Naikan Tao, "Ezra Pound's Comparative Poetics" page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 3.4 (2001):