Cover of ABC of Reading

ABC of Reading

by Ezra Pound · 1934

+ Want to read

This important work, first published in 1934, is a concise statement of Pound's aesthetic theory. With characteristic vigor and iconoclasm, Pound illustrates his precepts with exhibits meticulously chosen from the classics, and the concluding "Treatise on Meter" provides an illuminating essay for anyone aspiring to read and write poetry. The ABC of Reading emphasizes Pound's ability to discover neglected and unknown genius, distinguish originals from imitations, and open new avenues in literature for our time.

Subject
literary criticismliterary criticismMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of thiseducationeducationMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of this
Genre
literary fictionliterary fictionMore like thisLess of this
Themes
writerswritersMore like thisLess of this
Setting
20th century20th centuryMore like thisLess of thiscollegecollegeMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 208 pages
Form
poetrypoetryMore like thisLess of thisessaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked ABC of Reading? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked ABC of Reading. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Poetry and the Age Randall Jarrell · 1953 Shares poetry, criticism, literary criticism
  2. Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry Robert Hass · 1984 Shares poetry, criticism, literary criticism
  3. The Pound Era Hugh Kenner · 1971 Shares poetry, criticism, literary criticism
  4. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism T.S. Eliot · 1964 Shares poetry, criticism, nonfiction
See more recommendations →

“People who read ABC of Reading tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination Wallace Stevens · 1951
  2. The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry Ernest Fenollosa · 1919
  3. The Dyer's Hand W.H. Auden · 1962
  4. Selected Prose T.S. Eliot · 1953

“If you want more of the same (literary criticism about writers), start with these.”

  1. Homage to Robert Frost Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney · 1996
  2. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry Cleanth Brooks · 1956
  3. The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry Harold Bloom · 1971
  4. Preoccupations: Selected Prose, 1968-1978 Seamus Heaney · 1980

“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Close Calls With Nonsense: Reading New Poetry Stephen Burt · 2009
  2. The Art of Reading Poetry Harold Bloom · 2005
  3. Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation William H. Gass · 1999
  4. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics · 1993

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Cuba: A New History Richard Gott · 2004
  2. Modernism Peter Childs · 2000
  3. The Art of the Poetic Line James Longenbach · 2007
  4. Stand Still Like the Hummingbird Henry Miller · 1959

Report a problem