INTRODUCTION

THE MOST OBVIOUS aspect of the Cantos is that they are composed of at least eight separate sections, the continuity and interdependence of which are by no means obvious. The thing to do then is to begin at the beginning. To examine each section in order, taking note of connexions as we come upon them, but not inventing where we fail to find them. Such links would provide a means for considering the parts as belonging to a single poem and a starting-point for enquiry into the deeper question of form. But until they are discovered any talk of ‘construction’ is a waste of time.