THE HERITAGE OF CATULLUS IN THE EZRA POUND’S WORKS

Abstract

The article deals with the heritage of the Roman poet Catullus in the context of the works by the American poet Ezra Pound (1885–1972), one of the most considerable poets and critics of the twentieth century, the founders of the English and American modernism. E. Pound considered his epoch to be the time of the collapse of the artistic traditions of the past centuries, so he tried to «recreate culture». He urged his contemporaries to enrich the English poetry by bringing to it all the variety of foreign-language lyrics as he did, having a good command of many languages. E. Pound «read» Catullus’ poems in a new way. He turned to the translations of the fragments by the Roman poet’s works and he «placed» the quotations from the Catullus’ poems in a new context. With his unique relation to the world literary traditions E. Pound proved that the update of the poetry is possible only through the development of the world classics and involving it in the contemporary literature.