4pQonT

EZRA POUND 45
will be observed to be looking at Mr. Pound knocking over small
tea-tables and whatnots." 23
Ford intensely admired Pound, for he describes him in this book
as "the kindest-hearted man who ever cut a throat," 24
comparing
him in this regard favorably with Bertran de Born. As for Pound's
impact upon London society, and the Punch caricature of him,
Ford says, "Youth ought to go in sombreroes, trousers of green
billiard cloth, golden whiskers, with huge cravats, and to be found
in cafes if not in hedge alehouses or the cabarets of Montmartre.
. . . Indeed, you might put it that a public which, unconsciously,
remembers Villon, will believe in no other youth, and so the drawing-rooms
are dead." 25
Ford recalls his first meeting with Pound:
"When I first knew him, his Philadelphia accent was still comprehensible
if disconcerting; his beard and flowing locks were
auburn and luxuriant; he was astonishingly meagre and agile. He
threw himself alarmingly into frail chairs, devoured enormous
quantities of your pastry, fixed his pince nez firmly on his nose,
drew a manuscript from his pocket, threw his head back, closed
his eyes to the point of invisibility, and looking down his nose,
would chuckle like Mephistopheles and read you a translation from
Arnaut Daniel. The only part of that verse you would understand
would be the refrain.
'Ah me, the darn, the darn, it comes toe sune!'
"We published his Ballad of the Goodly Fere," continues Ford,
"which must have been his first appearance in a periodical except
for contributions to the Butte Montana Herald. Ezra, though born
in Butte in a caravan during the great blizzard of—but perhaps I
ought not to reveal the year. At any rate, Ezra left Butte at the age
of say two. The only one of his poems written and published there
that I can remember had for refrain,
'Cheer up, Dad . . .'
"Born in the blizzard," says this fanciful historian, "his first meal
consisted of kerosene. That was why he ate such enormous quan-