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78 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
may be this, but I think not. But unless I can get hold of a copy,
I absolutely don't know what they have printed." 10
This is the last time that Pound's name is mentioned in Lawrence's
published letters. To say that Lawrence disliked Pound
is meaningless unless one is to believe that he disliked everybody.
He was one of the unhappiest creative minds of our time, but
in those moments when the sun broke through, as in some of
the short pieces collected in Phoenix, he is superb. In his preoccupation
with sex, he is actually concerned with survival. As
Norman Douglas wrote, "D. H. Lawrence opened a little window
for the bourgeoisie. That was his life-work." 11
A kind of "Third Force" in London poetry circles at that time
was led by Harold Monro, keeper of the Poetry Bookshop, which
had become a meeting place. Monro was little more than a
dilettante and wrote uninspired work. By remaining in one place,
he became quite an authority, and long after Pound had left for
Paris, and Amy Lowell had returned to America, Monro continued
to hold forth in London. He traveled around England, giving
lectures, and was introduced as the acknowledged leader of English
poetic endeavors. He also wrote a book, Some Contemporary
Poets, which is of interest. He refers to the leader of the Imagists,
"It is related that when a young countryman of Pound's, arriving
in England, visited the master with a species of his work, Pound sat
for long at the table, in deep consideration of a certain poem, and
at length, glancing up, remarked, 'It took you ninety-seven words
to do it; I find it could have been managed in fifty-six.' " 12
Pound's dominance in London poetry circles was seriously challenged
from the distaff side, a quarter that he might have reasonably
felt he had no cause to fear. His outlets were publications
owned by women: Poetry, in Chicago, owned and edited by Miss
Harriet Monroe; The Egoist, the property of Miss Harriet Weaver;
and later, The Little Review of Margaret Anderson. It may seem
odd that the virile Pound was forced to deal almost exclusively
with women, but masculine conservatism is nowhere more drearily
expressed than in the field of publishing. Women are much more
radical than men, and much more willing to venture into new
modes of expression.
Although Pound maintained literary relationships with women