--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: When modernist poetry, or what not so…" description: "\"When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriousl..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0fd/laura-riding-9995_books_when-modernist-poetry-or-what-not-so-lon_3211805.jpg" --- # When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for… ![“When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled…” quote by Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0fd/laura-riding-9995_books_when-modernist-poetry-or-what-not-so-lon_3211805.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0fd/laura-riding-9995_books_when-modernist-poetry-or-what-not-so-lon_3211805.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0fd/laura-riding-9995_books_when-modernist-poetry-or-what-not-so-lon_3211805.jpg) > “When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled 'modernist' either in terms of condemnation or approbation. Better he thinks, that ten authentic poets should be left for posterity to discover than one charlatan should be allowed to steal into the Temple of Fame.” [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Modernist poems often hide behind pretension; genuine poetry should be left for true discovery, not for charlatans. **In simple terms:** True poetry is authentic, not pretentious. Key Takeaway Seek authenticity in literature. Themes literature authenticity critique Mood analytical thoughtful Type critical educational When to use this quote - book clubs - academic courses - writing workshops - literary criticism Key Concepts aesthetics literary theory culture Questions to Reflect On - What defines a genuine poem? - How do you balance tradition and experimentation? A Different Perspective Dismissal of avant‑garde can stifle innovation. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Condemnation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/condemnation/) [Fame](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fame/) [Justification](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/justification/) [Long ago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-ago/) [Modernist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernist/) [Orthodox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/orthodox/) [Poet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poet/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Shrinks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shrinks/) [Stage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stage/) [Temples](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/temples/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) ## Related quotes > [Part of the triumph of modernist poetry is, indeed, to have demonstrated the great extent to which verse can do without explicit meaning and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clement-greenberg/part-of-the-triumph-of-modernist-poetry-is-indeed-to-have/) [Clement Greenberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clement-greenberg/) > [I feel the most natural thing is for music to come that way because it's sort of like poetry. Though I do think with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-malkmus/i-feel-the-most-natural-thing-is-for-music-to-come-that-way-because/) [Stephen Malkmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-malkmus/) > [When students are first at the Kerouac School we harp on Gertrude Stein's very basic poetic insistence that words are things . Not to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-waldman/when-students-are-first-at-the-kerouac-school-we-harp-on-gertrude/) [Anne Waldman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-waldman/) > [“Hardy’s astonishing technical versatility has won the admiration of major poets from Ezra Pound and Cecil Day Lewis to Philip Larkin. Among other genres…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoffrey-harvey/hardy-s-astonishing-technical-versatility-has-won-the-admiration-of/) [Geoffrey Harvey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoffrey-harvey/) > [Someone — Cyril Connolly? Ezra Pound? — once said that anything that can be read twice is literature; I would say that anything that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-epstein/someone-cyril-connolly-ezra-pound-once-said-that-anything-that-can-be/) [Joseph Epstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-epstein/) > [“Eliot's understanding of poetic epistemology is a version of Bradley's theory, outlined in our second chapter, that knowing involves immediate, relational, and transcendent stages…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jewel-spears-brooker/eliot-s-understanding-of-poetic-epistemology-is-a-version-of-bradley/) [Jewel Spears Brooker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jewel-spears-brooker/) > [“Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work. --Ezra Pound”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ezra-pound/pay-no-attention-to-the-criticism-of-men-who-have-never-themselves-2/) [Ezra Pound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ezra-pound/) > [Ezra Pound was a pioneer of the most exciting aesthetic movement of the 20th century.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ash-sarkar/ezra-pound-was-a-pioneer-of-the-most-exciting-aesthetic-movement-of/) [Ash Sarkar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ash-sarkar/) > [Some of my pictures are poem-like in the sense that they are very condensed, haiku-lik. There are others that, if they were poetry, would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sally-mann/some-of-my-pictures-are-poem-like-in-the-sense-that-they-are-very/) [Sally Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sally-mann/) > [ \[On Ezra Pound:\] A village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gertrude-stein/on-ezra-pound-a-village-explainer-excellent-if-you-were-a-village-but/) [Gertrude Stein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gertrude-stein/) > [Take Ezra Pound's translations of poetry from Chinese. He doesn't really know Chinese, and the very strange results that he comes up with aren't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elliott-colla/take-ezra-pound-s-translations-of-poetry-from-chinese-he-doesn-t/) [Elliott Colla](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elliott-colla/) > [The role of the poet is almost nothing...drearily nothing. And when he steps outside of his boots and tries to get tough as our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-bukowski/the-role-of-the-poet-is-almost-nothing-drearily-nothing-and-when-he/) [Charles Bukowski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-bukowski/) > [Every poet gets to choose what kind of community he or she serves with the poems, and it's true that there is a community…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-kooser/every-poet-gets-to-choose-what-kind-of-community-he-or-she-serves/) [Ted Kooser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-kooser/) > [ Early in his life Mr. \[Ezra\] Pound met with strong, continued, and unintelligent opposition. If people keep opposing you when you are right, you… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/randall-jarrell/early-in-his-life-mr-ezra-pound-met-with-strong-continued-and/) [Randall Jarrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/randall-jarrell/) > [“The top eleven are, in order, T. S. Eliot’s “Prufrock,” Robert Lowell’s “Skunk Hour,” Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” William…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-gladwell/the-top-eleven-are-in-order-t-s-eliot-s-prufrock-robert-lowell-s/) [Malcolm Gladwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-gladwell/) ## More by Laura Riding > [I believe that misconceptions about oneself that one does not correct where possible act as a bad magic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/i-believe-that-misconceptions-about-oneself-that-one-does-not-correct/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [To a poet the mere making of a poem can seem to solve the problem of truth…but only a problem of art is solved…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/to-a-poet-the-mere-making-of-a-poem-can-seem-to-solve-the-problem-of/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Evil I had never found satisfactorily placeable as an integral element of the universal, or total, content of existence. Indeed, evil is evil just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/evil-i-had-never-found-satisfactorily-placeable-as-an-integral/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [“Forgive me, giver, if I destroy the gift: it is so nearly what would please me I cannot but perfect it”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/forgive-me-giver-if-i-destroy-the-gift-it-is-so-nearly-what-would/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [The new "ambiguity" means, in a way adjudged favorable to literary, poetic, intellectually and psychologically well-devised and praiseworthily executed linguistic performance, uncertainty of meaning,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/the-new-ambiguity-means-in-a-way-adjudged-favorable-to-literary/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Conversation succeeds conversation, Until there's nothing left to talk about Except truth, the perennial monologue, And no talker to dispute it but itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/conversation-succeeds-conversation-until-there-s-nothing-left-to-talk/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Women, ever since there have been women, have had a way of being people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/women-ever-since-there-have-been-women-have-had-a-way-of-being-people/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [ She \[Venison\] had never travelled and so could invent all kinds of strange places without being limited, as travelled people are, by knowledge of… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/she-venison-had-never-travelled-and-so-could-invent-all-kinds-of/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [rummaging in the storehouses of religious or literary history for myth-matter for ideational uses is of the nature of spiritual vulgarity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/rummaging-in-the-storehouses-of-religious-or-literary-history-for/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [The terms 'male' and 'female' must be understood as representing no mere primitive opposition of sex to sex; but as defining two worlds of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/the-terms-male-and-female-must-be-understood-as-representing-no-mere/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [The object of all religious activity is to mingle the human and the non-human, and the lower gods represent that which is cast back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/the-object-of-all-religious-activity-is-to-mingle-the-human-and-the/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Women are strangers in the country of man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/women-are-strangers-in-the-country-of-man/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Every thought sounds like a footfall, Till a thought like a boot kicks down the wall.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-riding/every-thought-sounds-like-a-footfall-till-a-thought-like-a-boot-kicks/) [Laura Riding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-riding/) > [Politics have always covered two distinct kinds of problems: problems of administrative routine, and those that may be called 'questions of the moment.' 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Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/markus-herz/be-careful-about-reading-health-books-some-fine-day-you-ll-die-of-a/) Markus Herz > [But editors are still the world's readers. And thus the eyes of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsy-lerner/but-editors-are-still-the-world-s-readers-and-thus-the-eyes-of-the/) [Betsy Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsy-lerner/) [Browse all 59,485 Books quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled 'modernist' either in terms of condemnation or approbation. 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