“Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols, or cultural patterns

These Fought in any Case
by: Ezra Pound

These fought in any case,
and some believing
pro domo, in any case .....

Died some, pro patria,
walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving
came home, home to a lie,
home to many deceits,
home to old lies and new infamy;
usury age-old and age-thick
and liars in public places.

Daring as never before, wastage as never before.
Young blood and high blood,
fair cheeks, and fine bodies;

fortitude as never before

frankness as never before,
disillusions as never told in the old days,
hysterias, trench confessions,
laughter out of dead bellies.

http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=255

“Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols, or cultural patterns.”

(Washington State University.)

This is the basic idea of the critic current known as ARCHETYPICAL CRITICISM. After reading several web pages ( cited in the bibliography) which are related to literary criticism the reader gets the idea that this movement or current is based on the symbols that a culture has created through out the time. One of the examples of the beginning of this kind of thinking is the Greek culture. (The Oxford University Press ), through its web page, makes an extraordinary exposition of the symbols that every hero represented: honour, power, pride, fear,.. all of the feelings, thoughts, sensations or behaviours were represented in the ancient cultures as characters, which had a name, an aspect, and had exagerated features that made them recognizable. This way authors had the chance to create the patterns of general behaviours. People actually believed in the ancient stories. These characters were not only characters, they were myths: “Far from being primitive fictions — about the natural world, some supposed ancestor, or tribal practice — myths are reflections of a profound reality”

MYTH APROACHES TO LITERARY CRITICISM. Here we find how important was the creation of myths for our cultures, because they marked the behaviours to follow. People living in society had to choose if they believed or not, if they followed the rules marked by those myths. And this is the essence of some of the literary expressions, like poetry in this case: to express the feelings and sensations, not only of the individual, the poet in this case, but of people in general. To show how they think, act or react against life.

One of the most important myths or symbols for our culture is the warrior, the defender. This symbol is characterized by the values it wants to attribute to every culture. The brave warrior that is going to defend the country against all the possible invaders. In the Grek mythology they had lots of important warriors, like Aquiles, Ajax or Hector, which symbolized the strength, not only of a country, but of a culture.

Putting this theories more close to our times, “Some of the school's major figures include Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight” (Archetypal/Myth Criticism.) These are the most representative authors that developed these theories in modernity. But they propose essentially the same explanations that any ancient author could give.

If there is any English writing author that can be a clear example of the defender of the myths it is Ezra Pound. In many of his poems we observe how he evoques past times to express his view of this world:

“Ezra Pound: The Pisan Cantos. These poems were written while Pound was a prisoner at the end of World War II, charged by U.S. military authorities with treason for the pro-Fascist and anti-Semitic broadcasts he made for the Italian government.” (ANWERS.COM.)

These poems are full of characters and symbols that represent all of the values we can find in that specific field which is War itself.

But these are not the only poems in which he shows his interest for myths and archetypes. The one analyzed by me in a previous Paper was “THESE FOUGHT IN ANY CASE”. This poem is so full of symbology regarding the values that a soldier should have. Here we find young blood and high blood in verse 13 which make direct reference to the essence of the country, and of the person himself. A symbol that always defend the values of a society. Of course we find frankness in verse 16, to make honour to another value which is inside the mind of the poet. And the title itself is a defence of the symbol of the soldier, since they fought in any case, no matter what the problems are, or who the enemy is, or the reasons for that war, they always fight to defend their culture.

There is to say that symbols are not always to be respected. Here in this poem we observe how all the myths have their “other side”, and that they are not always let’s say “correct” or “fair”. The game of playing with symbology can lead the poet to use the same symbols to destroy themselves. After a paused reading we notice that Pound is not defending the breveness of the soldiers, or their great will, but he is criticising the blindness in which they are installed and the ignorance of fighting for “liars in public places” verse 11.

BIBLIOGRAPHY