Ezra Pound would not have been a very good guide to the poetry of Rilke or Breton, Pessoa or Lorca, Kavafy or Montale--just to name poets in a few languages that Pound had some reading knowledge of. There exist incommensurate poetics, which fact makes it impossible to have a single person be a reliable guide to all of poetry. It is possible for one person to know more about poetry than someone else, to have read more, to have more discernnment, etc..., but even someone who knows a lot will still make foolish mistakes, if he or she oversteps, or have vast areas of ignorance/lack of sympathy.

Borges hated Lorca (the work, not the person)

Miles Davis didn't like Cecil Taylor or Ornette Coleman's music, or Eric Dolphy.


Poetry is not knowable by one person.