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DOI: 10.18319/j.elt.42 www.dcthink.us

A Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s and Robert Frost’s Poetic Aesthetics

XUE Lixian[a],*

[a]
MA in American Literature, College of Humanities and Social Science, out to be competitive rivals who subscribed to different,
Xi’an Polytechnic University, Xi’an, China.
or even, opposing poetic aesthetics, which left not only
*Corresponding author.
an intriguing but also a revealing legacy. Since the
Received 12 September 2014; accepted 4 November 2014 beginning decades of the 20 th century witnessed great
Published online 26 November 2014 political, economic, and military upheavals, which jointly
produced a peculiar mood of the age, thinking minds in
Abstract the field of literature initiated poetic movements, which
Ezra Pound and Robert Frost are two leading roles of aimed to revolutionize the conventional ideas and forms
American poetry in the 20th century. Though both of them of poetry. Among them, Ezra Pound served as a presiding
lived in the modern era, they show great differences in figure. He brought the Imagist Movement into full play
poetic aesthetics. The Imagist Movement launched by by endorsing three principles for Imagism, which played
Pound paved the way for the development of modern a crucial role in defining and promoting modernist
poetry and served as a rebel against the traditional poetic aesthetics in poetry.
aesthetics. However, Frost cut a unique way of his As a contrast, Robert Frost adhered to conventions. He
own. He played the traditional poetic aesthetics in full was unwilling to “run wild in the quest of new ways to
swing. The conventional subjects and poetic forms are be new” (Lathem, 2002, p.59), but remained content with
perfectly embodied in his poems. The thesis probes into “the old-fashioned way to be new” (Frost, 1995, p.75).
their differences in language, poetic forms, and ways In terms of both meter and subjects, Frost stuck to the
of conveying themes. Though the two poets’ aesthetic conventions. As a New England farmer poet or “Nature
theories and practices are totally different, they both have Poet”, Frost absorbed Romanticism, Transcendentalism,
achieved great success. And their achievements illuminate and Symbolism into his poems. In fact, his adherence
that the charm of a poem lies in its power to arouse echo to the American and British literary tradition was at
in readers’ heart, in its power to endow people with the center of his major poetic achievements, as he once
spiritual enjoyment and inspiration, no matter whether it admitted.
is conventional or innovative. Though it seems paradoxical, both Pound and Frost
Key words: Pound; Imagism; Frost; Poetic aesthetics have achieved great success and won high reputation.
With regard to Pound, his theory of poetic composition
widens the poetry expression. As for Frost, however,
X u e , L . X . ( 2 0 1 4 ) . A C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d y o n E z r a P o u n d ’s
a n d R o b e r t F r o s t ’s P o e t i c A e s t h e t i c s . E n g l i s h L a n g u a g e people are impressed by his pastoral subjects and
Te a c h i n g , 1 ( 1 ) , 2 3 - 2 8 . Av a i l a b l e f r o m : h t t p : / / w w w. e l t - philosophical thoughts underlying the plain language. The
journal.dcthink.org/index.php/elt-journal/article/view/42 comparison of their poetic ideas would reveal the rules for
DOI: http://dx.dot.org/10.18319/j.elt.42
both poetry composition and appreciation.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Reviews on Ezra Pound
As the most distinguished twentieth-century American Being the founder of modern American poetic innovation,
poets, Ezra (1885-1972) and Frost (1874-1963) turned Pound is referred to as “the poet’s poet”. He launched the

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A Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s and Robert Frost’s Poetic Aesthetics

movement of Imagism, striving to eliminate the decadent at Peking University, “but it is also difficult to place him
poetics of late Romanticism and open up a path for the in the main tread of modern poetry” (Huang, 2000, p.42).
development of modern English poetry. There has long To sum up, the criticism on the two poets, from Pound’s
been a great enthusiasm for the study of Pound. Besides poetic innovation, his Imagistic views to Frost’s poetic
the biographical and documentary studies, critics have subjects, thought and style have been almost exhausted.
combed the ideas in Pound’s The Cantos. Pound’s political, However, the comparisons of the two poets that are of the
economic, and philosophical ideas also have triggered keen same fame but different views are left not fully explored.
interest among critics. Moreover, many Chinese researches Hence, the author of the thesis carries out an analysis
have been carried out from the perspectives of translation, of point-to-point comparison, with the aim to make the
cultural communication, and aesthetics. conventional and modern poetic aesthetics more clearly
In terms of study on Pound’s poetic aesthetics, the image and to reveal a rule of poetry creation and appreciation.
exploration serves as the core. The image, as T. E. Hulme
once said, must enable one “to dwell and linger upon a
point of excitement, to achieve the impossible and convert 2. DIFFERENCE IN LANGUAGE
a point into a line” (Chang, 2003, p.159). Furthermore, He
Qing’s Pound’s Imagistic Theory and Imagistic Doctrine in 2.1 Pound’s Compressed Words
Chinese Traditional Aesthetics , Li Youba’s The Aesthetic Ezra Pound protests against the conventional poems with
Interpretation of Ezra Pound’ Poetry, and Gong Yan’s its verbosity as well as extra-poetic padding, and aims
Image Research under the Aesthetic Vision, have also been instead at a new clarity and exactness of the language.
devoted to the study of images. Pound advocates that any linguistic form that may distract
the reader from the image is unnecessary, such as the
1.2 Reviews on Robert Frost artificial poetic diction, superfluous verbiage, rhetoric,
Perhaps no American poets of the 20 th century have explicit philosophizing, and editorializing, and transitional
received higher honors than Frost did. In 1957, he was filler. He brings forward the requirement of the language
awarded two especially coveted honors from Oxford in composing a poem, namely, to use absolutely no word
and Cambridge. He has received the Pulitzer Prize for that does not contribute to the presentation. To Pound,
poetry four times. Along with Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, any unnecessary word represents a loss of precision and
and Wallace Stevens, Frost is now firmly regarded as one a moral and artistic defect. Therefore, the precise word
of the undisputed masters of modern American poetry should be used to convey the exact meaning—this is
(Layman, 1989, p.71). Pound’s criterion of poetry:
For a long time, critics have been enjoying the
Poetry must be as well written as prose. Its language must be
absolute freedom of comprehending Frost’s poetry in a fine language, departing in no way from speech save by a
different ways. Some focus on the discussion of the heightened intensity (i.e. economy). There must be no book
relation between man and nature, while others pay much words, no periphrases, no inversions. It must be as simple as De
attention to his capacity to voice symbolic meaning in Maupassant’s best prose, and as hard as Stendhal’s. (Herbert,
1969, p.36)
naturalistically portrayed scene and action. Comments
on Frost’s poetry mainly concentrate on the following The idea shown in this statement is that poetry
aspects: the themes and images, the structure and should be hard and clear, never blurred or indefinite, that
rhetorical devices, the deceptive simplicity, and the concentration is the very essence of poetry, and that there
artistry of his poetry such as “the sound of sense.” must be no clichés, set phrases, stereotyped journalese.
With regard to the theme, Chinese critics have probed The language should be of economy, precision,
into Frost’s abundant use of figures of speech and symbols concision, and be characterized by absence of pretension,
that contain a profound and meaningful philosophy and his abstraction or didacticism. It should be of the right
unique way of passing his thoughts to the readers. Another words in the right place and at a minimum of rhetoric.
vehemently-discussed topic of Frost is whether he is a Consequently, Pound’s compressed words hinder some
traditional poet or modern one. Critics generally agree that readers from full understanding.
Frost’ poetry is traditional in Modernist standards, more In his famous “In a Station of the Metro,” Pound
often using traditional rhyme and meter instead of the free excellently puts the theory into practice. Pound recorded
verse. In “Frost and Modernism”, Robert Kern expresses how he came to write this poem. On a visit to Paris, in the
that Frost is a poet, for whom the pressure or “chaos” metro he
of history is less a determinant of poetic form than a
saw suddenly a beautiful face, and then other and another, and
provocation to reproduce it in its more or less established then another beautiful woman, and I tried all that day to find
modes (Kern, 1998, p.2). “Although Frost’s career fully words for what this had meant to me, and I could not find any
spans the modern period and it is unreasonable to speak words that seemed to me worthy, or as lovely as that sudden
of him as anything other than a modern poet,” said Huang emotion (Kenner, 1971, p.184).
Zongying, a professor of English and American literature

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 XUE Lixian (2014).
English Language Teaching, 1 (1), 23-28

The words were slow in coming. Pound said that he ……………………………………

first wrote a thirty-line poem, which he destroyed. Six I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
months later, he produced another shorter poem, which he Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
also discarded. Then a year later, he completed the twenty- I took the one less travelled by,
word poem. In the process of continuous modifications, And that has made all the difference. (Chang, 2003, p.198)
Pound left out all the redundant words and used the fewest
The stanzas read like a man pouring out his personal
possible words to convey two accurate images, showing
experiences and emotions when looking back, since the
his insistence on the economy of words.
words are colloquial and plain, not as oblique as Pound’s
In addition, his poem “The Encounter” can serve as
diction. Furthermore, contrary to Pound’s bias, this poem
another example to illustrate his view of concision of
contains the explanative and descriptive words, such as
words:
“because,” “though,” “far,” “equally,” and so on.
All the white they were talking the new morality In conclusion, Frost and Pound are opposed to each
Her eyes explored me. other in words of selection in poems—one prefers
And when I arose to go succinct language and the other upholds plain language.
Her fingers were like the tissue
Of a Japanese paper napkin. (Chang, 2003, p. 201)

Pound is conscious of stripping the poem of inessential 3. DIFFERENCE IN POETIC FORMS

details. There is no superfluous ornamental adjective and
all is a loyal record of the physical experience. 3.1 Pound’s Free Verse
In conclusion, Pound’s poems are characterized by the Ezra Pound, as the pioneer of the innovation movement,
neatness and economy of language. abandons the traditional poetic forms, which are
characterized by meter and rhyme. He argues that rhyme
2.2 Frost’s Colloquial Diction
which sticks to a restrict pattern prevents a poet from
During the beginning decades of the 20th century, many depicting the image. “As regarding rhythm: to compose
poets were intent on the poetry reform. T. S. Eliot began to in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence
apply allusion, legend, and ironic language in his poems, of a metronome”, said Pound (Chang, 2003, p.159). It
putting obstacles to the readers’ understanding. Pound means that no necessary words may be included in order
tried to render his words as exactly, and compressed as to make a meter, and a poem should be composed with
possible, making his poems composed by some noun the phrasing of music. This principle concerns a breaking
phrases. As their contemporary, Frost, however, kept from conventional prosody and the interrelationship
himself away from the innovative vortex. Influenced by between music and verse. For Pound, an elementary tool
the romantic predecessors, Frost is featured by plain and in the handicraft of the poet is the mastery of both the
colloquial words. “I am as sure that the colloquial is the natural melody and the cadence of language. He wrote in
root of every good poem as I am that the national is the “Vers Libre and Amold Dolmetsch”:
root of all thought and art…” asserted Frost, in North of
Boston, “One half of individuality is locality, and I was Poetry is a composition of words set to music…The proportion
of quality of the music may, and does, vary; but poetry withers
about venturing to say the other half was colloquialism” and “dries out” when it leaves music, or at least imagined
(Paton, 2003, p.113). Echoing with the concept of music, too far behind it…Poets who will not study music are,
colloquialism, Frost uses vernacular, plain, and daily or become , bad poets…Poets who will not study music are
speeches. Thus, Frost’s poems enjoy more popularity defective. (Lander, 1971, p.16)
with people of all walks, while Pound’s poems are more
In fact, Pound’s natural bent has always been poetry
embraced by intellectuals.
should be sung rather than spoken. The music that Pound
Due to his adherence to traditional meter and rhyme,
has in mind is real sounds in sequence, an actual melody.
Frost’s words are not totally of concision. In order to stick
In order to achieve the effect of the musical quality of
to the metrical pattern and rhyme scheme, now and then
speech, Pound adopts the free verse, which is a form
extra words need to be added. As a result, the effect of
of poetry that refrains from rigid metrical patterns. For
compression can not be achieved as perfectly as Pound
Pound, free verse is a poetic mode closely allied to the
does, as the latter adopts free verse.
music. Practically speaking, this principle can be figured
In his well-known poem “The Road Not Taken”, Frost
out from the poem “A Pact”
transfers a philosophical theme with the spoken words
running through the whole poem: I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman-
I have detested you long enough.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, I come to you as a grown child
And sorry I could not travel both Who has had a pig-headed father;
And be one traveler, long I stood I am old enough now to make friends.
And looked down one as far as I could It was you that broke the new wood,
To where it bent in the undergrowth; Now is a time for carving.

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A Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s and Robert Frost’s Poetic Aesthetics

We have one sap and one root He gives his harness bells a shake,
Let there be commerce between us. (Hu, 2003, p.312) To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
This poem runs freely without considering either Of easy wind and downy flake.
traditional meter or rhyme, but at the same time it attains
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
a strong musical effect. His musical speech can also be But I have promises to keep,
found in the short poem “In a Station of the Metro”: And miles to go before I sleep.
In a Station of the Metro And miles to go before I sleep. (Frost, 1961, p. 275)
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; The poem consists of four almost identically-
Petals on a wet, black bough. (Hu, 2003, p.312)
constructed stanzas. Each line is iambic, with four stressed
Being strongly influenced by Japanese haiku, the syllables. Within the four lines of each stanza, the first,
poem is also featured by its imperfect internal rhymes: second, and fourth lines rhyme. The third line does not,
station/apparition, metro/petals/wet, crowd/bough, and the but it sets up the rhymes for the next stanza. Besides, in
consequent musicality. the poem “Acquainted with the Night,” Frost also adopts
the traditional poetic forms:
3.2 Frost’s Consciousness of Meter
When many poets plunge into the poetic reform, Robert I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.
Frost stands consciously aloof from the Modernist I have outwalked the further city light.
endeavor. He does not seem particularly enthusiastic
in form experiment. “To be perfectly frank with you,” I have looked down the saddled city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat,
said Frost in a letter to his friend John T. Bartlett, “I And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. (Frost, 1961, p.
am one of the most notable craftsman of my time. I 324)
am possibly the only person going who works on any
but a worn out theory of versification” (Thompson, This rhyme scheme is like this: aba, bcb, cdc, ded. And
1964, p.79). Frost retains a faith in the traditional each line is of iambic pentameter. Besides, “The Road
forms of poetry, which attaches much importance to Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of iambic tetrameter
meter and rhyme. He once said that writing without with the rhyme scheme abaab, which echoes with the
meter was like playing tennis without a net. Therefore, traditional poetic form.
he employs traditional verse forms—sonnet, rhyming These three poems, with the harmonious balance and
couplets, and blank verse instead of free verse, which unity between poetic meter and rhyme, give the reader
is much typical of the 20th century. a sense of rhythm and progress and illustrate Frost’s
Frost’s opinion of poetic forms can be revealed by his prosody. It can be inferred from the poems that Frost’s
advocate, namely, “the sound of sense.” He said: poetic forms are contrary to the modern poems, which
stress the absence of poetic meter and rhyme.
I alone of English writers have set myself to make music out of
what I may call the sound of sense… The best place to get the
abstract sound of sense is from the voice behind a door that cuts 4 . D I F F E R E N C E I N T H E WAY O F
off the words…It is the abstract vitality of our speech…If one is
to be a poet he must learn to get cadences by skillfully breaking VOICING THEME
the sounds of sense with all their irregularity of accent across the
regular beat of the meter. (Thompson, 1964, p.79) 4.1 Pound’s Juxtaposition of Images
The theory of “the sound of sense” attaches great Ezra Pound’s most prominent poetic feature lies in his
importance to the poetic meter and rhyme or the poetic focus on the image. Although many poets prior to Pound
prosody. As Frost said, his greatest difference from had employed images in their poems, none of them had
other poets is his adherence to traditional poetic meter regarded images as an important or even the only means
and rhyme, and that the perfect harmony existing of poetic creation or presentation. For Pound’s part, image
between meter and rhyme inspires readers to think and is the dominant factor of poetry.
imagine. In his famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Like many intellectuals of his generation, Pound
Snowy Evening,” Frost clearly illustrates his opinion on endeavored to get away from the heavy, ponderous
poetic forms: logic of the 19th century and to find a new way to voice
his emotions and ideas. He brought forward his theory
Whose woods these are I think I know, of direct treatment of “the thing,” whether subjective
His house is in the village, though.
or objective (Chang, 2003, p.159). He argued that the
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow. expression should resemble the “object” as closely as an
art can make it. “Direct” means no fuss, frill, or ornament.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Without rhetorical description and logical explanation,
Between the woods and frozen lake, Pound conveyed his ideas and feelings by making use
The darkest evening of the year. of the juxtaposition of images. In 1911, in his first series

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 XUE Lixian (2014).
English Language Teaching, 1 (1), 23-28

of articles for the New Age, where he had described the To sum up, Pound’s technique of juxtaposing the
artist’s instinctive preference for “Luminous Detail” over images proves to be an effective way to set forth his
abstract argument, Pound asserted that the artist must thoughts to the reader.
not try to analyze a phenomenon or explain it in abstract
4.2 Frost’s Logic Pattern
terms, but should merely present it in a series of pictures.
Later on, he formulated his Ideogramic Method. It means In his famous essay “The Figure a Poem Makes,” Frost
to do away with abstract argument, or any other obviously demonstrates his views on how to transmit a poet’s
rational process, and instead, to present first one facet and emotions and ideas to the reader or how to construct a
then another for the reader to contemplate and mediate poem so that deep revelations are exposed. He said:
on. In Pound’s opinion, poetry should be rooted in images It should be the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The
rather than ideas. He insists on a reflection through the figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
precise, concrete images and warns against the use of The figure is the same as for love. No one really holds that the
ecstasy should be static and stands still in one place. It begins in
explanatory statements or abstract, rhetorical descriptions.
delight, it inclines to the pulse, it assumes direction with the first
Nevertheless, how can the juxtaposition of images line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a
uncover the theme? The image, as Pound defines, is that clarification of life—not really a great clarification, such as sects
which presents an intellectual and economical complex in cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.
an instant of time. It is the presentation of such a complex It has denouement. It has an outcome that though unforeseen
was predestined from the first image of the original mood—
instantaneously that gives a sense of sudden liberation,
and indeed from the very mood. It is but a trick poem and no
a sense of freedom from time limits, and a sense of poem at all if the best of it was thought of first and save the last.
sudden growth (Knapp, 1979, p.59). It is a concrete It finds its own name as it goes and discovers the best waiting
expression with abstract meaning. It is not an ornament for it in some final phrase at once wise and sad—the happy-sad
of the language but speech to voice one’s feelings and blend of the drinking song. (Cox & Lathem, 1968, p.19)
thoughts. Therefore, by the juxtaposition of images, Frost’s preference for the traditional pattern of
Pound successfully delivers his subjective thoughts to unmasking his poetic emotions and thoughts, instead of
the reader. In his most well-known poem “In a Station Pound’s juxtaposition of images is clearly shown in his
of the Metro,” Pound brilliantly combines a sharp visual remarks. For him, voicing profound ideas in a poem is just
image or two juxtaposed images “Petals on a wet, black like solving a logical problem. It needs the poet to prove
bough” with an implied meaning. Superficially, the poem the final conclusion step by step, with each step paving
is a description of a moment of sudden emotion at seeing the way for the next one. Moreover, his poems begin with
beautiful faces in a metro. He saw the faces, turning a scene or an event and conclude with some philosophy.
variously toward light and darkness, like flower petals that As a result, Frost’s poems seem like easy to catch at first
are half absorbed by, half resisting the wet, dark texture glance, but as the reader goes on for the deeper, he may
of a bough. Yet, it is just by juxtaposing the two images be exposed to incisive life philosophy or other profound
that abstruse meanings are implied. Therefore, contrary themes.
to the traditional way of logical argument, which goes As a regional poet, Frost is mainly concerned with the
like following a thread, Pound adopts the technique of the landscape and people in New England area. His poems, for
parallel of two images to uncover his concern. example, “Pasture,” “Stopping by the Snowy Evening,”
Pound’s another poem “Ts’ai Chi’h”, also illuminates “Birches,” “After Apple-Picking,” show readers beautiful
his concept of indicating the theme with the juxtaposition pictures, with villages far from the uproar of cities, with
of images: an original land without being polluted by the modern
The petals fall in the fountain, industry. These lovely sceneries contain peace, beauty,
The orange-colored rose-leaves, tranquility, and human feelings, in contrast to the highly
Their ochre clings to the stone. (Pound, 1975, p.216)
developed modern and industrialized city life. At the same
In this poem, Pound does not use rhetorical or logic time, the poet also ponders eternal human problems which
methods to pour out his emotions. Instead, he conceals always exist no matter how social conditions change.
his emotions among a series of images. Ts’ai Chi’h is Therefore, Frost, by following a thread or a logical
compared to the orange-colored rose leaves, which are a inference, brings his themes and thoughts into the readers’
symbol of blight, implying this brilliant Chinese poet’s mind. In fact, Frost is plainly the most deceptive poet in
final pathetic fate. Meanwhile, the fountain reminds the the history of our literature (Parini, 2004, p.266).
reader of Ts’ai Chi’h’s innocence. Finally, the image-stone A detailed analysis of “Stopping by Woods on a
transmits the reader a sense of perseverance and eternity. Snowy Evening” will show Frost’s mode and idea of
Hence, these images naturally bring out the poem’s theme versification. The first three stanzas are intended to create
to the best advantage. Though Ts’ai Chi’h lives a short and a sense of brooding mystery as the speaker stops his horse
tragic life, his spirit remains forever, and his marvelous in a desolate landscape between woods and a frozen lake.
works will always linger in the readers’ heart. The speaker gazes into the woods, feeling the impulse

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A Comparative Study on Ezra Pound’s and Robert Frost’s Poetic Aesthetics

of losing himself in them. Then his horse shakes bells, REFERENCES

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Either old-fashioned or innovative, the beauty and value of Zhao, T. (2005). Preliminary analysis on Lyric Poetry’s style of
a poem rests on its power to bestow spiritual cultivation on Robert Frost. Journal of Panzhihua University, 26-27.
readers.

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