Ezra Pound: Poems Lesson Plan

What do you think “E.P.” stands for? How does this inform how we read the character of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley? How might the two components of the epigraph inform our expectations about what is to come?

E.P. most likely stands for Ezra Pound. Thus, as the epigraph addresses the poet, it is safe to assume that Hugh Selwyn Mauberley stands in for Pound himself, and this can be carried through the entire work. The two parts of the epigraph do not have a direct referent from which to extrapolate meaning, but they can inform us about the general atmosphere. “Vocat aesthus in umbram” means roughly, “Heat calls us into shade.” One possibility is that there is some “heat” or pressure...