SOURCE: Pound, Ezra. “Ezra Pound on Sandburg.” Double Dealer 3, no. 17 (May 1922): 277-78.

In the following essay, Pound writes flippantly on the subject of labeling Sandburg a “tough” poet.

Ezra Pound writes from Paris, with particular reference to the article in The Double Dealer for February entitled “The Literary Tough” (q. v.):

“Neither Sandburg's last book nor Professor Schelling's review of it has reached me. As an ‘effete neo-European’ may I be permitted to ask whether ‘tough’ is a term of insult?

Sandburg was a lumber-jack, at least that was, I think, the term used in the first introduction of him. His ability was recognized both in Chicago and London about ten years ago. Let us for the sake of argument say that he is a ‘tough’:

A. In the language of the so indubitably refined brothers Goncourt: ‘Are there prescribed classes in literature?’

B. If Sandburg still is...