Radio expert explores poet’s trial

18 July 2008

BU’s Professor of Radio Sean Street will explore the trial of controversial poet Ezra Pound, on BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Sunday Feature’.

This weekend Professor of Radio, Sean Street, will be exploring the difficult and controversial figure of poet Ezra Pound, on BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Sunday Feature’.

In 'The Trial of Ezra Pound ' poet and historian Sean Street investigates the case of the infamous poet who had a major influence on 20th century literature, and who T S Eliot called ‘the greater master’.

Pound's significant contribution to the arts was overshadowed by his Italian broadcasts during the Second World War. Pound, a supporter of Mussolini, railed against American Imperialism and their participation in the war, as well as the international banking cartels he saw as the driving force behind the conflict. The broadcasts were vituperative, anti-Semitic – and ultimately somewhat tedious.

When Italy fell, Pound, then 60, was incarcerated in a small open cage, on display in a square in Pisa for 12 days. He was then flown back to the States to stand trial for treason, a capital offence. The trial never happened; Pound was judged unfit to stand on grounds of insanity and consigned to St Elizabeth’s Hospital where he spent the next 13 years. After interventions by several major literary figures, including Eliot, he was released and returned to Italy where he lived and worked till his death in 1972.

Did Pound commit treason or inconveniently use his right to free speech? Was he insane? And are there contemporay parallels – the incarcaration by the state without due legal process of those it wishes out of the way.

Street listens to Pound himself, his broadcasts, explanations of his thinking, and poems recorded on his release. He also, in a rare interview, speaks to Pound's daughter, Mary de Rachewlitz, his biographer David Moody, and the Jewish playwright Bernard Kops whose fascination with Pound began by falling in love with his poetry, before he struggled to reconcile this with his knowledge of Pound’s politics.

The Trial of Ezra Pound is on Radio 3 on Sunday 20 July, from 9.30pm - 10.15.