Pound’s Role in the Making of The Waste Land: Eliot’s Reception of Pound’s Emendations
It is well known that Eliot’s The Waste Land resulted from the collaboration between Eliot and Pound; however, what Pound had done in the making of the poem has been unknown until 1968 when the manuscript of the poem was found at the New York Public Library. Valerie published the Facsimile version with the photocopied original typescripts, which has contributed our understading of the collaboration between Eliot and Pound, and Pound’s contribution to the making of this poem. Pound suggested many revisions in the manuscript, but it seems that he refrained from forcing Eliot to accept his suggestions. Eliot must have realized what Pound had suggested would have made his poem more compact and precise in diction and would also refine the meaning of the poem. Though he was ready to incorporate some Pound’s suggestions and emendations, Eliot did not accept all of his suggestions; had he incorporated these rejected suggestions, his motif and diction would have been weakened and rendered unclear and ineffective; Eliot surely knew his own poem better than anyone, including Pound; there must have been things Pound could not fully grasp. The Waste Land is a fruit of a remarkable cooperation between the two great master poets of the last century, Eliot and Pound.