"I wish he would explain his explanation"

Authorial Explication in Wallace Stevens and Ezra Pound

Abstract

Writers often explicate their work, but their comments are not necessarily trustworthy. Strictly speaking, they are new statements that need themselves to be interpreted and that bear a problematic relationship to the text they propose to explicate. This is shown by examples from Stevens and Pound, both notably obscure writers who, like other modernists, often provided readers with authorial explications. While their attitudes were different, and Stevens insisted that "the basis of criticism is the work, not the hidden intention of the writer", both ultimately fell back on their individual (realistic) perception of the world. They were also alike in being finally impatient with requests for explanation, being much more concerned with the work ahead - with "Making It New".