‘H. H.' [James Laughlin IV] and ‘S. D.' [Delmore Schwartz], Notes on Ezra Pound’s Cantos: Structure and Metric

This pamphlet, published by New Directions, was prepared as a promotional aid for the New Directions edition of Cantos LII-LXXI, and was included in review copies. Laughlin had asked Pound to consider a preface for the new Cantos. Pound refused, writing in February 1940: 'Dear Jas: Cantos 52-71 can not have a preface in the book. Cover gives ample space for blurb. The new set is not incomprehensible. Nobody can summarize what is already condensed to the absolute limit. The point is that with Cantos 52-71 a new thing is. Plain narrative with chronological sequence. Read 'em before you go off half-cocked' (Stock, Life, pp. 375-6). Laughlin was the author of an essay on the 'Homage' (No. 106), and Schwartz had reviewed the Fifth Decad (No. 105).