“The Return” By Ezra Pound
Among many great thinkers of the nineteenth-twentieth centuries, Pound was known for his strong belief that the modern societies are, sadly, isolating themselves away from the Judeo-Christian religion. Through his poems, Pound expresses his sadness and disappointment over what people have come to of this spiritual ignorance. He believed that modern self-renouncing had caused people to ignore the world around them, making them feel bored and filled with guilt upon things they don’t have control on. However, Pound also thought that, deep down, in most societies, one would still find individuals who keep a belief of the Gods and godlike spirits. Throughout his poetic life, Pound reaffirmed this belief attempting to awaken the young generations who still feel guilty and most likely lost in their self-centered lives giving them some light on their roads. “The Return” is an expression of this belief in the continuing reality of human-kind’s ancient gods. In “The Return,” Pound tries to call out to his readers in an attempt to gain their attention and to deliver the massage that gods still exist for those who have eyes to see them.
Generally, this poem has a sad tone: Pound has repeated in many stages in this poem that Gods exist, but he also acknowledged their lost power. The poem was intended to sway in two contrasting themes: the isolated, forgotten status of the gods in the modern era and a grief over their ancient glory. Pound also knows that the gods were neither kindly nor merciful during the times when they had their ultimate power; they instead were cruel and very controlling. He acknowledges that the gods were hunters of human souls, and they gain their strengths from those associated with predators—keen senses, an aptitude for violence, power, and speed. Yet Pound thinks that these qualities are the ones that humans have lost in the present time. While the ancient gods live in close association with humans, humans live in a universe remote from their God, whose power and characteristics are a need for humans. The poem ends with uncertainty, similar to the uncertainty of the returning gods. The final stanza of the poem suggests that the gods have fallen so low that a recovery is almost impossible. Not only Gods are being weak, pale and slow in the modern world, but humans too.
The apparent simplicity of this twenty-line poem contradicts its deep subject. This poem is constructed with short lines and straightforward ideas. The compelling rhythms makes the reader dive in a series of striking images, but as soon as the poem ends, the reader find themselves in a huge uncertainty of the real issue, which I think was the main goal of this poem, to not strictly guide people but to give them some hints about their sad live-styles away from the Gods. “The Return” is not only written to resemble the return of the ancient, pre-Judeo-Christian gods to earth. But also to revels the passage of a group of formerly daring beings, those who are now exhausted and tired by their anxieties and loss. Pound also described the return of the gods to be slow, with uncertain movement, but he also calls others to witness the defeated return of this godlike host.
