"One a Bird Bore Off": Anglo-Saxon and the elegiac in The Cantos'

Abstract

This article provides an explanation and context for Pound's quotation from the Old English poem 'The Wanderer' at the start of 'Canto 27' and discusses the previously unacknowledged stylistic and rhythmical debts to Old English in 'Canto 28'. The article argues that Pound sees this 'saxonist' style specifically as elegiac and deploys it accordingly.