Ballad of the Goodly Fere
The Ballad of the Goodly Fere is a poem by Ezra Pound, first published in 1909. The narrator is Simon Zelotes, speaking after the Crucifixion about his memories of Jesus (the "goodly fere" — Old English for "companion" — of the title).
Pound wrote the poem as a direct response to what he considered inappropriately effeminate portrayals of Jesus, comparing Jesus — a "man o' men" — to "capon priest(s)";[1] he subsequently told T.P.'s Weekly that he had "been made very angry by a certain sort of cheap irreverence".[2]
Critical response
Charles Elkin Mathews expressed his concerns that readers would find Fere's humanization of Jesus offensive.[3]
Edward Marsh sought permission to reprint Fere, which Pound denied because he wished to reprint it himself.[2]
T. S. Eliot said that Fere showed Pound's "great knowledge of the ballad form".[4]
William Butler Yeats said that Fere "will last".[5]
Ambrose Bierce is said to "consistently disapproved" the poems of a "young poet", until one came to him which impressed him so much he wore "out the paper and the patience of [his] friends by reading it at [sic] them", namely Fere. [6]
External links
- Text of the poem, via Google Books.
References
- ^ The Last Temptation Reconsidered by Carol Iannone, from First Things 60, February 1996
- ^ a b A Guide to Ezra Pound's Personae: 1926 by K. K. Ruthven, University of California Press, 1969]
- ^ Ezra Pound: poet. A Portrait of the Man & His Work. Volume 1: The young genius, 1885-1920, by Anthony David Moody, Oxford University Press, 2007
- ^ Ezra Pound: His Metric and Poetry" by T. S. Eliot, (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1917)
- ^ The Work of Ezra Pound by Carl Sandburg, originally published in Poetry, February 1916
- ^ The Poetry of Ambrose Bierce by Jack Matthews, originally published in slightly different form in the Ohio Review, fall 1997