Delmore Schwartz said about The Cantos: They are one of the touchstones of modern poetry. William Carlos WIlliams said [Pound] discloses history by its odor, by the feel of it--in the words; fuses it with the words, present and past, to MAKE his Cantos. Make them.

Since the 1969 revised edition, the Italian Cantos LXXII and LXXIII (as well as a 1966 fragment concluding the work) have been added. Now appearing for the first time is Pound's recently found Eglish translation of Italian Canto LXXII.