page_title: List of cultural references in The Cantos
section_title: D
hierarchical_section_title: List of cultural references in The Cantos / D
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a high-resolution image of the United States Declaration of Independence (article - text). This image is a version of the 1823 William Stone facsimile — Stone may well have used a wet pressing process (that removed ink from the original document onto a contact sheet for the purpose of making the engraving). Español: Versión manuscrita de la Declaración de Independencia de los Estados Unidos. Reproducción del facsímil de William Stone (1823) en el que posiblemente se utilizó un proceso de prensado en húmedo que eliminó la tinta del documento original en una hoja de contacto con el propósito de hacer el grabado.
context_page_description: This is a list of persons, places, events, etc. that feature in Ezra Pound's The Cantos, a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. It is a book-length work, widely considered to present formidable difficulties to the reader. Strong claims have been made for it as one of the most significant works of modernist poetry of the twentieth century. As in Pound's prose writing, the themes of economics, governance and culture are integral to its content.
  The most striking feature of the text, to a casual browser, is the inclusion of Chinese characters as well as quotations in European languages other than English. Recourse to scholarly commentaries is almost inevitable for a close reader. The range of allusion to historical events and other works of literature is very broad, and abrupt changes occur with the minimum of stage directions.
  This list serves as a collection of links to information on a wide range of these references with clear indications of the cantos in which they appear. It also gives relevant citations to Pound's other writings, especially his prose, and translations of non-English words and phrases where appropriate.
context_section_description: Dafne - A nymph who was turned into a shrub to escape the lustful pursuit of Apollo. Also, Dafne was an attempt to revive Greek theater that resulted in the creation of opera - Canto II
  Arnaut Daniel - Troubadour poet. Pound translated most of his surviving work and agreed with Dante's high estimation of him. In his 1910 book The Spirit of Romance, Pound wrote "The Twelfth Century, or, more exactly, that century whose center is the year 1200, has left us two perfect gifts: the church of San Zeno in Verona, and the canzoni of Arnaut Daniel" In his 1928 essay, How to Read, Pound lists Arnaut among the "inventors", or poets who were responsible for introducing something to the art that had never been done before. - Canto VII: the line "e qu'el remir [contra'l lum de la lampa]" ("and look at her [against the light of the lamp])" from the poem Douz braitz e critz quoted. Canto XX: "noigandres" ("banishes ennui") - Canto XCI: The line "pensar de lieis m'es repaus" ("it rests me to think of her") from En breu brizara'l temps braus quoted. In the 1911/12 series of essays I gather the limbs of Osiris, Pound writes of this line: "You cannot get statement simpler than that, or clearer, or les rhetorical". - Cantos XXIX, XCVII
  Dante Alighieri Italian poet whose Divine Comedy, a long allegorical poem in three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) and 100 cantos describing the poet's journey through hell, purgatory and paradise was a major model for Pound's long poem. In his 1928 essay, How to Read, Pound lists Dante among the inventors, or poets who were responsible for introducing something to the art that had never been done before. Cantos LXXXV - Canto XCIII: Discussed distributive justice.
  The Divine Comedy
  Inferno: Canto CX (Lines on the doomed lovers Paolo and Francesca quoted) - Canto CXI (Inferno XVII source for Geryon. In the essay Hell, his 1934 review of Laurence Binyon's translation of the Inferno, Pound wrote "Deep hell is reached via Geryon [fraud] of the marvelous patterned hide, and for ten cantos thereafter the damned are all of them tamned for money.")
  Purgatorio: Canto VII: (Description of Sordello from Purgatorio VI applied to Henry James) - Canto LXXXIV (Purgatorio XXVI lines on Arnaut Daniel misquoted) - Canto XCIII (Purgatorio XXVIII quoted extensively at end) - Canto XCVII (Purgatorio XXVI on Arnaut Daniel)
  Paradiso: Cantos VII, XCIII, CIX: (Paradiso II on Dante's "dinghy") - Canto XXXIX (Paradiso XIX quoted "che sovra Senna induce, falseggiando la moneta" ("is bringing upon the Seine by falsifying the coin") - Canto XCVIII: divine light - Canto XCIII (Paradiso: Canto VIII quoted "non fosse cive" ("if he were not a citizen") -Canto C on "letizia" ("gladness")
  La Vita Nuova: Canto LXXVII "[Ego tamquam] centrum circuli" ("[I am] the centre of a circle") quoted. The entire passage is quoted in the 1911/12 series of essays I gather the limbs of Osiris.
  Il Convito - Canto XCI: "che il terzo ciel movete" ("who moves the third heaven") quoted - Canto XXV "compagnevole animale" (man is a "companionable animal") quoted
  Other works - Canto CXVI (Canzone Al poco giorno e al gran cerchio d'ombra quoted)
  Georgius Dartona Renaissance humanist. Pound used his versions of the Homeric Hymns as a source. - Cantos I, LXXIX
  Silas Deane – U.S. agent in France – Canto LXV
  Declaration of Independence (United States) – Canto LXV
  Alexander del Mar – Economic historian whose  History of Monetary Systems was a major source for Pound's later writings. Del Mar was Jewish and opposed economic anti-Semitism strongly in his writings. – Cantos LXXXIX, XCVI, XCVIII, XCIV
  Edgar Degas - Cantos LXXIV, LXXX, CIV
  Demeter - Canto XCVIII
  Diana – Latin goddess of hunting, equivalent of Greek Artemis. – Canto XCI: Layamon's hymn to Diana is quoted.
  Dionysus (also called Iacchos and Zagreus) - Cantos II, XVII, LXXVII, LXXIX, CV
  Dirce - Canto LXXXII
  Disraeli – Canto LXXXIX: The right of search and the Anglo-American War of 1812 to 1814.
  Andreas Divus - Renaissance scholar whose Latin translation of Book XI of Homer's Odyssey forms the basis of Canto I. A
caption: U.S. Declaration of Independence: most of the signatories also feature in The Cantos.
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