Ezra Pound: A Response

While contemporary poetry, free verse expression, rarely moves me in a comparable fashion with the traditional strain, it still seems to me that Ezra Pound should be afforded every honor for his influence, for his contributions to poetic expression.
I see in Pound's work the same fluidity of language I would readily laud in Frost or Yeats. How then to reconcile my usual misgivings, the uncertainty that would have me both uplift and marginalize 'free verse' poetry?

Contemporary poetry could easily be termed 'new', 'novus' in the Roman tongue. The Latin word implies 'strange' as well; something new is strange and not to be trusted. I have my reservations, but at the same time I can not condemn this man for reaching outward, for experimenting and revealing another outlet for inspiration. And in the same breath, I can not discount those like-minded poets who find exhilaration in new methods, in the simple beauty and musical nature of language. To walk the same path inevitably becomes tiresome and dangerous. New blood and new horizons always benefit the human spirit, and any study of literature finds ample evidence that sometimes the old, traditional ways do not suffice. To keep poetry fresh and lively, sometimes a new method need be procured, a method that includes everyone and liberates language. I think this has been a hard won but valuable lesson for me, in that while many contemporary poets refuse the rhyme and meter, they still possess the same wishes, the same desires and wistfulness. Yeats and Wordsworth were not so different, nor Ezra Pound unaware of his emotions and unable to express them in his medium.

Breathe deep then, gentle poets. Dream something new, and when the poetic ecstasy is spent, let us meet at the local coffee house.