4pQonT

336 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
The flood of articles about him in the European press during the
early 1950s, and the devoted few who spoke up for him here constituted
a growing tide of criticism, which the government officials
could not withstand. He was released by the same cowards who
had imprisoned him, and because of the same cowardice through
which a few "liberals" could use the might of the State against an
individual citizen, who was also a poet.
Pound knew what powerful subterranean forces he was defying
when he made his broadcasts, but I believe that he did so deliberately,
putting himself to the test, as heroes have done since
the beginning of time. Lest the reader think that I wax unduly
enthusiastic, or that such men are no longer among us, there is a
note that he contributed to the August, 1955 Strike that is enlightening:
"EARLY ENGLISH PROSE—From Ford Madox Ford's
March of Literature:
"'. . . And if you have not read the Morte d'arthur you will
not know the quintessence of recklessness and the rareness of
chivalry. You will not merely be a different man after you have
read for the first time the letter of Sir Gawain to Sir Launcelot:
" 'I send thee greeting and let thee have knowledge, thou flower
of all noble knights that ever I saw or heard of by my day, that
this day I was smitten on the old wound that thou gavest me afore
the city of Benwick and through the same wound that thou gavest
me I am come to my own death day wherefore I beseech thee, Sir
Launcelot, to return again into this realm, and see my tomb and
say some prayer more or less for my soul!' "
To which Ezra added the comment, "—but you will become
acquainted with a firmness of approach between man and man
that has vanished from our world—aided by Cervantes!"
It is no accident that the "debunking" movement was coincidental
with the rise of "modern literature", wherein all saints
stink and all knights have syphilis. Pound has mentioned the
"glorification of the brothel," which became the goal of the
Romantic movement.
I quoted this note from Ford because it contained the adjective
"reckless". Ezra once admitted to me, during one of his rare
references to his broadcasts, that he had been "reckless" in making