The Pound of the final pages of Moody's biography is by far the most sympathetic version of the man offered across the three volumes it comprises. The account of the intense depression suffered by the poet in his final years made for grim reading. Something seemed to break in him, and his occasional acknowledgements that he'd got it all wrong and spoiled everything struck me as bitingly sincere, not least because of their obvious truth.
Why did it take him so long to see this? I suppose because the cost of seeing it was so monumental.
Mind you, he was incredibly lucky in terms of the support he received in those years from the various women in his life. Moody does a good job of spelling out the entanglements EP got himself into romantically without becoming overly prurient or judgemental, but I can't help but point out that it's difficult to defend the poet's behaviour, especially towards the younger women. Indeed, I'd say that Olga Rudge is the one character from it all who emerges as a figure to unequivocally admire. I reckon she's worth a biography all of her own.
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