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EZRA POUND 337
them, and it is a recklessness that would not be out of place in a
modern Morte d'Arthur.
It was obvious that most of Pound's visitors accorded him the
homage due to a natural aristocrat, one who had "arrived" through
deeds rather than through inheritance, although, in a larger sense,
he was the heir of the world's culture. Edmund Wilson's Apologies
to the Iroquois (1960) echoes D. H. Lawrence's view of the natural
aristocracy of the American Indian. The Iroquois chief does not
need to identify himself by living in a mansion or surrounding himself
with a fawning entourage, nor do the other Indians need such
aids to the eye in identifying him. The weakness of parliamentary
democracy is that it destroys the natural aristocracy, and eventually
devours itself. The natural aristocrat needs above all to retain his
inherent dignity and integrity, and he cannot do this by crawling
through the sewers to the polling place.
The poet Dallam Flynn was commissioned to go to Europe and
organize a committee of intellectuals who would petition for
Pound's release. Ezra was optimistic about the possible formation
of such a committee, because of the favorable press that the Continent
afforded him. The outcome of Dallam's efforts was to increase
considerably the number of Ezra's enemies in Europe.
Dallam had no luck with the Europeans, but the seeds were
sown, and several years later, a committee was formed in Italy.
It was headed by Giovanni Papini, who, although aged and blind,
and in the last year of his life, still commanded great respect
because of his widely-circulated Life of Christ and other religious
writings. The second-in-command of the committee was the Mayor
of Florence, Georgio La Piro, who was famed for his piety and his
work among the poor.
The influence of this committee was soon felt. On March 30,
1954, the Vatican Radio broadcast an appeal by Duarte de
Montalegre, the pen name of Professor Jose V. de Piña Martins, of
Rome University. This talk was later broadcast by the Italian
Radio, and appeared in printed form under the title, Prometheus
Bound. He said, in part,
"Eight years have now gone by. And Ezra Pound, the greatest
poet of the United States and one of the greatest poets of the
world, is still detained in a prison in his country, a prison of which