Periplum is defined in the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

as being " iginally and chiefly in the poetry of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

," and as being equivalent in meaning to the English word "

periplus A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus wa ...

." The word is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

περι (a prefix meaning around or about) + πλοῦς (voyage). As a noun, Pound uses "periplum" simply to refer to a voyage or journey, as in canto 74, line 3: "The great periplum brings in the stars to our shore." Here the "great periplum" refers to the daily journey made by the Sun God,

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

. "Periplum" is also used in ''The Cantos'' adverbially, as we see in this example from canto 59:

Periplum, not as land looks on a map
But as sea bord seen by men sailing. (Line 82-4)

In his book

ABC of Reading ''ABC of Reading'' is a book by the 20th-century Imagist poet Ezra Pound published in 1934. In it, Pound sets out an approach by which one may come to appreciate and understand literature (focusing primarily on poetry). Despite its title the text c ...

, Pound describes the geography of Homer's Odyssey as "correct geography; not as you would find it if you had a geography book and a map, but as it would be in 'periplum,' that is, as a coasting sailor would find it." That is to say that Homer's geography is understood from the point of view of a sailor who is actually "in periplum" or in the midst of the voyage itself. In ''The Cantos'', Pound similarly perceives space from the point of view of a poet in the midst of experience rather than from an ''a posteriori'' position. Gabriel Levin: "One more night crossing, one more periplum..."Gabriel Levin, To These Dark Steps, Anvil Press, 2012, p. 69 ''Periplum'' is the name of an England-based site-responsive theatre company. (http://www.periplum.co.uk/)

References

{{Ezra Pound Ezra Pound