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EZRA POUND 161
the slightest hint of fractious disposition, expressing itself in verse
or pigment, he became delirious. He instructed the incipient roughneck
how to construct the infernal machine, he would spare no
pains. I have encountered many a carbuncular little protégé of
Ezra's who would produce from a vest pocket a packet of letters,
full of instructions and admonitions—all typed in a violent-blue
ink, and written in the most fantastic jargon. A most healthy destructive
force, but more promiscuous than is permissible. I have
called him a 'revolutionary simpleton.' I take this occasion of
calling him that again." 11
Lewis errs on the side of quantity when he only remembers
the carbuncular protégés and ignores the writers who have derived
positive benefit from Ezra's influence. He offers a rambling
diatribe against the artistic Bohemians of the 1920s, whom Lewis
in some way links with another of his dislikes, Oswald Spengler.
He also tucks Gertrude Stein and Ezra into the same bed, which
I am sure neither of them appreciated.
Despite its inadequacies, the book found an enthusiast in Yeats.
After reading it, he wrote to Olivia Shakespear on November 29,
1927, telling her that he liked the book very much. 12 Again, in a
letter dated December 12, 1927, he asked her to "Tell Wyndham
Lewis that I am in all essentials his most humble and admiring
disciple." 13
Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory on April 11, 1928, from Villarssur-Bex,
Switzerland, "Have you read Wyndham Lewis? He attacked
Ezra Pound and Joyce in 'Time and Western Man' and is
on my side of the fence philosophically. My essay takes up the
controversy and explains Ezra Pound sufficiently to keep him as a
friendly neighbor, for I see that in the winter he must take Russell's
place of a Monday evening. He has most of Maud Gonne's
opinions (political and economic) about the world in general,
being what Lewis calls 'the revolutionary simpleton.' The chief
difference is that he hates Palgrave's Golden Treasury as she does
the Free State Government, and thinks even worse of its editor
than she does of President Cosgrave. He has even her passion for
cats and large numbers wait him every night at a certain street
corner knowing that his pocket is full of meat bones or chicken
bones. They belong to the oppressed races." 14