Ezra Pound became infatuated with the beauty of Venice when he traveled through Europe with his Aunt Frank as a young man of twelve. The sensibility expressed by the stones of Venice became an inspiration to which he gravitated for the rest of his life: \"I first saw Venice in 1898 and have always wanted to go back. It has never disappointed me.\" This love of Quattrocento architecture conflicted, however, with a contempt he felt for the decadence visible in Venice, To Pound the decadence symbolized a decline in Western culture.. As he gazed at the physical beauty of the Venetian art forms, he yearned to find a modern city which preserved tradition in the arts and encouraged new art as a healthy outgrowth of the old. The Cantos are the story of active man the speaker of the poem — searching for his city:
The early interpreters of The Cantos tended to see the poem as a study of the man of willed and directed action, as a persona of Odysseus. It is now clear that the poem rests most firmly in a deeper, stiller sense of humanity, the city and its continuity, symbolized by the goddess of field and citadel wearing the sanctuary of her people as a crown.
The purpose of this paper is to explain Pound's search for a city: to distinguish between his outer and inner search for a city, to define his concept of city as seen in images of The Cantos, and, finally, to analyze his inner search for a city as seen in the Venice ideograms of The Cantos.
","abstract_html":"<p>Ezra Pound became infatuated with the beauty of Venice when he traveled through Europe with his Aunt Frank as a young man of twelve. The sensibility expressed by the stones of Venice became an inspiration to which he gravitated for the rest of his life: "I first saw Venice in 1898 and have always wanted to go back. It has never disappointed me." This love of Quattrocento architecture conflicted, however, with a contempt he felt for the decadence visible in Venice, To Pound the decadence symbolized a decline in Western culture.. As he gazed at the physical beauty of the Venetian art forms, he yearned to find a modern city which preserved tradition in the arts and encouraged new art as a healthy outgrowth of the old. The Cantos are the story of active man the speaker of the poem — searching for his city:</p> <p>The early interpreters of The Cantos tended to see the poem as a study of the man of willed and directed action, as a persona of Odysseus. It is now clear that the poem rests most firmly in a deeper, stiller sense of humanity, the city and its continuity, symbolized by the goddess of field and citadel wearing the sanctuary of her people as a crown.</p> <p>The purpose of this paper is to explain Pound's search for a city: to distinguish between his outer and inner search for a city, to define his concept of city as seen in images of The Cantos, and, finally, to analyze his inner search for a city as seen in the Venice ideograms of The Cantos.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cann, Kristin"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1978,"date_issued":"1978-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1978-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:06:07Z","subjects":["Humanities","Arts and Humanities"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/153","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cann, Kristin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Humanities","Arts and Humanities"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/153"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Ezra Pound became infatuated with the beauty of Venice when he traveled through Europe with his Aunt Frank as a young man of twelve. The sensibility expressed by the stones of Venice became an inspiration to which he gravitated for the rest of his life: \"I first saw Venice in 1898 and have always wanted to go back. It has never disappointed me.\" This love of Quattrocento architecture conflicted, however, with a contempt he felt for the decadence visible in Venice, To Pound the decadence symbolized a decline in Western culture.. As he gazed at the physical beauty of the Venetian art forms, he yearned to find a modern city which preserved tradition in the arts and encouraged new art as a healthy outgrowth of the old. The Cantos are the story of active man the speaker of the poem — searching for his city:
The early interpreters of The Cantos tended to see the poem as a study of the man of willed and directed action, as a persona of Odysseus. It is now clear that the poem rests most firmly in a deeper, stiller sense of humanity, the city and its continuity, symbolized by the goddess of field and citadel wearing the sanctuary of her people as a crown.
The purpose of this paper is to explain Pound's search for a city: to distinguish between his outer and inner search for a city, to define his concept of city as seen in images of The Cantos, and, finally, to analyze his inner search for a city as seen in the Venice ideograms of The Cantos.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Ezra Pound's City: The Total Light Process"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Cann, Kristin"],"dc:description.abstract":["Ezra Pound became infatuated with the beauty of Venice when he traveled through Europe with his Aunt Frank as a young man of twelve. The sensibility expressed by the stones of Venice became an inspiration to which he gravitated for the rest of his life: \"I first saw Venice in 1898 and have always wanted to go back. It has never disappointed me.\" This love of Quattrocento architecture conflicted, however, with a contempt he felt for the decadence visible in Venice, To Pound the decadence symbolized a decline in Western culture.. As he gazed at the physical beauty of the Venetian art forms, he yearned to find a modern city which preserved tradition in the arts and encouraged new art as a healthy outgrowth of the old. The Cantos are the story of active man the speaker of the poem — searching for his city:
The early interpreters of The Cantos tended to see the poem as a study of the man of willed and directed action, as a persona of Odysseus. It is now clear that the poem rests most firmly in a deeper, stiller sense of humanity, the city and its continuity, symbolized by the goddess of field and citadel wearing the sanctuary of her people as a crown.
The purpose of this paper is to explain Pound's search for a city: to distinguish between his outer and inner search for a city, to define his concept of city as seen in images of The Cantos, and, finally, to analyze his inner search for a city as seen in the Venice ideograms of The Cantos.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/153"],"dc:subject":["Humanities","Arts and Humanities"],"dc:title":["Ezra Pound's City: The Total Light Process"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:06:07Z"}