Ezra Pound here recreates for the English-speaking world the great poetry of ancient China. The 305 odes of the Classic Anthology are the living tradition of Chinese poetry. Since the fifth century before Christ, they have been as familiar to literate Chinese as the Homeric poems were to the ancient Greeks. Indeed, Confucius held that no man was truly educated until he had studied the odes.

"Pound has put a great book into living English measures." - The Nation