has succeeded, where all others have failed, in evolving a
blend of the imagery of the unfettered West, the vocabulary
of Wardour Street, and the sinister abandon of Borgiac
Italy.

In 1913, someone writing to the New York _Nation_ from the
University of Illinois, illustrates the American, more serious,
disapproval. This writer begins by expressing his objections to
the "principle of Futurism." (Pound has perhaps done more than
anyone to keep Futurism out of England. His antagonism to this
movement was the first which was not due merely to unintelligent
dislike for anything new, and was due to his perception that
Futurism was incompatible with any principles of form. In his
own words, Futurism is "accelerated impressionism.") The writer
in the _Nation_ then goes on to analyze the modern "hypertrophy
of romanticism" into

The exaggeration of the importance of a personal emotion.
The abandonment of all standards of form.
The suppression of all evidence that a particular composition
is animated by any directing intelligence.

As for the first point, here are Mr. Pound's words in answer to
the question, "do you agree that the great poet is never
emotional?"

Yes, absolutely; if by emotion is meant that he is at the
mercy of every passing mood.... The only kind of emotion
worthy of a poet is the inspirational emotion which
energises and strengthens, and which is very remote from the