ABC of Reading
ABC of Reading is a book by Ezra Pound published in 1934. In it, Pound sets out an approach by which one may come to appreciate and understand literature (focusing primarily on poetry).
Despite its title the text can be considered as a guide to writing poetry. The work begins with the "Parable of the sunfish" and contains several strikingly informative mantras:
"Literature is language charged with meaning: Great literature is simply charged with meaning to the utmost degree" - to be achieved by three main ways:
phanopoeia - throwing the object (fixed or moving) on to the visual imagination.
melopoeia - inducing emotional correlations by sound and rhythm of the speech.
logopoeia - inducing 1 & 2 by stimulating associations with other word/word groups.
"Literature is news that stays news".
"Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music."
"I've never read half a page of Homer without finding melodic invention."
"Without the foregoing minimum of poetry in other languages you simply will not know where English poetry comes."
