Pound played with ROMA/AMOR. But it was more than word-play. This paper shows how Pound extolled heterosexual love by raising Woman to the mythic level she occupied in classical European literature, giving examples from The Cantos and the lyrics.

By Bhud, Pound of course means the Buddha. The Buddhists believe in the eight-fold path. Right thinking being the first. It also includes `Right means of livelihood.' That means no prostitution. The `phallos' is man's erotic drive. `Its aim' would of course be heterosexual for Pound. This means no homosexuality. But Pound is not prescriptive. It could also mean `each to his own.' Here, I think, he is talking about the kind of man society needs: an erotic man and not a narrowly sexual man. Love "build[s] the city of Dioce / whose terraces are the color of stars." He has also already believed with the neo-Platonists, who learnt it from India's sages during Alexander's conquest, that "if all is Soul, then the Body is within the Soul."

Who is this lady that Pound hymns? He is very clear in Canto LXXVIII (78). He calls her Pamona in the beginning, the Greek goddess of fruiting orchards:

American Literature Journal, Amor in Pound, Classical European Literature, Homosexuality, Diastasis, Olga-Circe-Artemis, Heterosexual Love, Homosexual Love.