Ezra Pound and Amanda Gorman (presidential inauguration poem, 2021). Both of these poets show what power the poet's speaking voice can command in an American world, and what consequent dangers it can encounter: Pound attempted through thirty years to align his own American voice, its phenomenal range, tone, and cadence, with Latin, Greek, Italian, Chinese resources, and the result was the utter and terrible defeat recorded in Canto CXVI and nearby. Amanda Gorman seems to point toward other ways of meeting with, and giving expression to, wonder. Again, we'll look at passages I will circulate in advance.