Point of View

The most enduringly difficult aspect of "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" is the maddening way that Pound creates two alter egos. These alter egos may be aspects of himself but to what extent? What in them does he admire, what in them does he wish us to condemn, what of himself does he unconsciously include? E. P., one of the alter egos, even has Pound's own initials—is he an earlier version of Pound, accurately portrayed, or is he (like James Joyce's character Stephen Dedalus) a satirized version of some of the author's old traits?

E. P. is the first alter ego. We learn this from the fact that the first poem is called "E.P. Ode pour l'election de son sepulchre," or "E.P. Ode for the Selection of His Tomb." E. P. is clearly the "he" of this first poem, a young poet who came to...