Following the pattern established by his three immediately preceding collections Pound called this volume Ripostes of Ezra Pound. There is a playful distinction, I think, between this and the more obvious title format of “Ripostes by Ezra Pound”, just making possible the idea that this Ezra Pound is a fictive persona whose ripostes are compiled by some otherwise anonymous writer. Like those other collections, Personae, Exultations and Canzoni, this rather postmodern subtlety is lost in common titular usage. Ripostes was published in 1912 by Swift and Co., a firm which, despite going rather swiftly bankrupt, provided Pound with a fair, though temporary, reward for his efforts. The titl

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Published 07 September 2004

Citation: Wilson, Peter. "Ripostes of Ezra Pound". The Literary Encyclopedia. 7 September 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2386, accessed 9 February 2010.]