SOURCE: "Ezra Pound as a Vorticist," in Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, Vol. VI, No. 1, Winter-Spring, 1965, pp. 56-72.

In the following essay, Wees analyses Pound's role in the development of Vorticism.

Vorticism stands at the center of Ezra Pound's twelve-year stay in London (1908-1920), and it represents his fullest commitment to the attitudes, the activities, and the art of London's avant-garde artists. Although this commitment came during the crucial years in Pound's development as a poet and polemicist, it has yet to be fully described, and its consequences evaluated. In the following pages, then, I will examine, first, the reasons for Pound's desertion of Imagism for Vorticism; second, Pound's contribution to the formation of the Vorticist group and the publication of the Vorticists' magazine, Blast; third, the nature of Vorticism, itself, as it is revealed in Blast; fourth, Pound's personal efforts to promote and perpetuate the Vorticist movement...