How did The Pisan Cantos originate during Ezra Pound’s imprisonment near Pisa?

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Pound, Ezra — Ezra Pound Ezra Pound, photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn, c. 1913.

The Pisan Cantos (1948) originated while Ezra Pound was incarcerated by U.S. forces following his arrest in 1945 for his pro-Fascist broadcasts during World War II.123

Pound spent six months in a prison camp for army criminals near Pisa, Italy. Despite the harsh conditions of his confinement, he composed these poems, which are widely considered among the most moving and admired sections of his long, ongoing work, The Cantos. During this same period of imprisonment, he also worked on translating Confucius into English. The collection later gained significant recognition when it was awarded the Bollingen Prize in 1949, an event that sparked considerable controversy.21