Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

Ezra Pound formulated this definition in the context of his early-20th-century modernist campaign to renew poetry and prose through precision, economy, and intensity. As a leading advocate of Imagism and a polemical critic, Pound argued against inflated, ornamental Victorian diction and for writing that concentrates meaning through exact word choice, rhythm, and image. The remark reflects his broader critical project—visible in his essays and ABC-style primers for readers and writers—of treating literature as an art of verbal energy: language should not merely decorate ideas but embody them with maximum force and clarity.

Pound’s claim defines “great literature” not by subject matter or moral lesson but by linguistic concentration: the best writing compresses thought, feeling, and perception into words that do the most possible work. “Charged” suggests electricity—language as a medium carrying high voltage—so that each phrase transmits layered implications, sound, and image. The statement also implies a standard for criticism: evaluate literature by how intensely and efficiently it makes meaning, not by how grandly it gestures. In Pound’s modernist aesthetics, this intensity is achieved through precision, musicality, and the elimination of slack or purely decorative language.

“Literature is language charged with meaning.”
“Great literature is language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.”