SOURCE: Tate, Allen. “Ezra Pound and the Bollingen Prize.” In Ezra Pound Perspectives: Essays in Honor of his Eightieth Birthday, edited with an introduction by Noel Stock, pp. 86-9. Chicago, Ill.: Henry Regnery Company, 1965.

In the following essay, originally published in 1959, Tate—the famed poet and head of the Bollingen Prize jury—defends his selection of Pound as the winner of their 1949 award as being due to Pound's efforts in regenerating language, though oddly he has strong criticism of the Pisan Cantos.

What I shall say here is not in further commentary on Mr. William Barrett's article in the April, 1949, issue of Partisan Review; nor is it the “rational, impersonal, and calm justification” of the award of the Bollingen Prize to Ezra Pound which Mr. Barrett was kind enough to expect from me. I intend rather to set down my own reasons for voting for the Pisan Cantos...