Despite the fact that for millions of Americans the juxtaposition Milton Pound might as well be the name of a rock band, two recent issues of The New Yorker devoted space to essays about English poet John Milton (June 2) and American poet Ezra Pound (June 9 & 16). The piece on Milton, written by Jonathan Rosen, was motivated by a roster of books published this year to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of the author of “Paradise Lost.” The piece on Pound, by Louis Menand, takes impetus from the first volume of a new biography about the poet, essayist, editor and noted fascist.

Improbable as it may seem, Milton and Pound share some characteristics. Both were formidably well-read and learned, and their writings encompass an astonishing breadth of allusion. Both attempted to embody a world-view in an epic poem, Milton in “Paradise Lost” and Pound in “The Cantos.” Both were polemicists, leveling sharp critical prose at cultural, social and political concerns; the feverishly productive Pound issued hundreds of essays and pamphlets on myriad subjects including modern art and poetry (especially the necessity to “Make It New”) and dangerously crackpot theories of history and economics, while Milton is best known for “Areopagitica,” his brilliant defense of freedom of speech, “Doctrines and Discipline of Divorce” (he was unhappily married), and “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates,” in which he espoused the notion that power resides in the people.

Both Milton and Pound were considered traitors, the former for supporting and working for Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth for 20 years (Charles II was not in a forgiving mood when restored to the throne in 1660, and a warrant was issued for Milton’s arrest, and he went into hiding), while Pound, after spending World War II broadcasting anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda from Rome was captured by American soldiers in 1945, sent back to the United States and was committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, from which he was released in 1958.

Here’s another common bond: Outside of academia, neither Milton nor Pound is read today. Their voluminous writings are considered obscure and difficult (and in Pound’s case often downright crazy), reflecting cultures we no longer understand and that are completely irrelevant to the early 21st century, though surely Milton’s deeply liberal (if not libertarian) opinions on education, freedom of the press and the relationship between people and their governments are, during the tenure of George W. Bush in the White House, more meaningful than ever.

From the late 17th through the early 20th century, Milton’s name was synonymous with lofty locution and eloquence, with high seriousness in poetry. In fact, Pound was one of the “modernists,” along with his friend T.S. Eliot, who toppled Milton from his fusty pedestal. Pound, before he descended into paranoia and madness, was regarded as the progenitor of literary modernism, serving as editor for Eliot, champion for Yeats and Joyce and dozens of other writers, constantly cajoling, complaining, urging, arguing, hatching plots and schemes, founding or supporting little magazines and journals. Once he was considered the major influence on poetry in the first half of the 20th century; now Pound seems more than neglected, he seems ignored.

I realize that one person cannot turn the tide, but here’s what I propose, as my Mid-Year Resolution: To read, by the end of 2008, John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Ezra Pound’s “Cantos.” While “Paradise Lost” may be considered both sacrosanct and boring and the “Cantos” impenetrable and insane and boring, I, in the final analysis, will be the judge of that. To keep readers of this blog informed about my progress or lack thereof, I will post occasional bulletins, and while engaged in this pursuit, I will attempt to lead a happy, normal, productive life in all other areas.

You may say “Good luck” at any time here.