“The Ash-Tree as ‘unwobbling pivot’ in Pound’s Early and Late Poetry”

The ash-tree is a fundamental presence in Pound’s early and late poetry. It appears in his debut book of poetry (whose first title, then changed, was La Fraisne, or the Ash-Tree”) charged with folk-lore echoes and classic mythical echoes. The same tree then reappears in Pound’s late Cantos (Cantos 85 and 90) metamorphosed in the Norse original tree Yggdrasill, the bridge between Earth and Heavens, men and gods; it is now endowed with mythological, anthropological, and auto-biographical levels of significance and echoes. This is evidence of a long-lasting/recurring theme informing all the parable of Pound’s poetry