These fought in any case

The poet conducts an investigation into the causes of the Great War - World War I - in attempting to explain why it was that so many soldiers fought. He decides that the reasons were varied, but at its most basic was the fact the western civilization itself was corrupt and dying, and spokesmen for it had mislead the soldiers into believing it was a good thing to die for one's country.

Ezra Pound was born in 1885 in Hailey (Idaho) but his family moved to Pennsylvania when he was 18 months old. He was an only child of Quaker ancestry and, indeed, his early schooling was with the Quakers.

From age 13 he attended the Cheltenham Military Academy, where he had to wear uniforms based on those of the American Civil War. The scholars were also heavily regimented and were taught the importance of obedience to authority.

At the age of 15 he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania's College of Liberal Arts where he would complete two years before moving to Hamilton College, graduating in 1905 with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree.

Pound has been described as being "clever, independent, conceited, and unpopular". Even in his early years he had decided that he wanted to be a poet. His first publication was at the age of 11, in the Jenkintown Times Chronicle: a limerick making fun of an American politician who had lost the Presidential election.

He was somewhat of a philanderer in his earlier years, simultaneously asking two women to marry him in 1907 but eventually marrying Dorothy Shakespear in 1914.

After teaching at Wabash College for two years, he travelled abroad to Spain, Italy and London. There he became interested in Japanese and Chinese poetry. He liked the clarity, precision and economy of language in their poetry.

It was this which inspired him to start a movement that he called Imagism which would launch what is now known as the Modernist movement in poetry.

He also corresponded with a host of poets in both Britain and America and was personally responsible for promoting their work. These included such greats as W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot.

The poet was appalled at the death and destruction caused in the Great War where many of his friends had died. He saw the reasons as being none other than the capitalist philosophy of the western civilization, espoused especially by America and Great Britain.

In 1924, he moved to Italy where he became involved in Fascist politics. He was brutal in his condemnation of the United States which he claimed was a country based on usury (profit-based money lending) and capitalism.

He also broadcast fascist propaganda to the United States during World War II. Because of this, he was arrested for treason when he returned to the United States in 1945.

He was eventually declared to be mentally ill and institutionalised. It was during that period that it was decided to overlook his political past in favour of his influence in the advancement of literature.

When he was released from the mental hospital in 1958, he returned to Italy. He would die as a recluse in 1972. He was then 77 years of age.

Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:


"came home, home to a lie,
home to many deceits,
home to old lies and new infamy;
usury age-old and age-thick
and liars in public places."

• The poet really does turn it on pretty thickly here, doesn't he? But what is this reference to "age-old usury" and why does this appear to be at the centre of the poet's argument? (10)

[Need help?]

"Usury" is at the very centre of the Modernist poets' argument. Literally, usury means the lending of money for profit. This was something which the Christian Church condemned. It was wrong, the Church argued. There is something evil in money and so, if one is going to lend money to a friend, one may not charge that friend anything for doing so. One may only ask for the money back, but charging no interest. Only the Jews were allowed to charge interest, and this was another reason why the medieval society hated the Jews. But, with the development of the Calvinist Church, usury came to be accepted. Immediately it was accepted, it became the backbone for a new economic philosophy called "capitalism" - a philosophy of greed. And it is this philosophy, say the Modernists, which is the cause of warfare. World War I, according to Modernist poets like Ezra Pound, was not caused by any other reason than greed. Greed, usury and capitalism are all the same thing. But the capitalists lie to us in public places, telling us how necessary it is to fight their battles. But their battles, say the Modernist poets, are simply caused by their greed. We are fighting so that people can be even more greedy.

• Why then are the soldiers going back "home to old lies and new infamy"? (4)

[Need help?]

The old lies are that we must all work hard so that the greedy few at the top will become even wealthier. They try to convince us, says the poet, that this is not so. But, with the war for greed over, there will simply be more shame and this will lead to another war.

• Who are the "liars in public places"? (4)

[Need help?]

The "liars in public places" are the politicians and the bankers, the capitalists and the usurers. Who has caused this latest recession? The bankers. The usurers. One can hear Ezra Pound saying, "I told you so!"

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"Daring as never before, wastage as never before.
Young blood and high blood,
fair cheeks, and fine bodies;

fortitude as never before

frankness as never before,
disillusions as never told in the old days,
hysterias, trench confessions,
laughter out of dead bellies."

• Why does the poet repeat the words, "as never before"? (4)

[Need help?]

The poet says that the Great War - World War I - was a war beyond anything ever experienced. There was more daring, more wastage, more young people killed, more nobility than ever before killed, more healthy and good looking youth than ever before being killed, and yet more openness, disillusionment, fear, sick jokes. It was a war beyond the imaginings of any other war.

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"For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization,

Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth's lid,

For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books."

• What is this "old bitch gone in the teeth", this "botched civilization"? (4)

[Need help?]

The "old bitch" might be a truly obscene word. It all depends on whether or not the poet is referring to an old female dog whose teeth have fallen out. In that sense, our western civilization is "botched", is like an old dog that is almost ready to die. That was a common belief at about that time. Many philosophers saw the Great War as the last great battle, the Armageddon which would see the fall of the western civilization itself.

• What is this "Charm, smiling at the good mouth"? (4)

[Need help?]

This is not an easy question. "Charm" usually means "good manners". But is that possible here? Or are the politicians charming us? On the other hand, a "charm" also means a "magical object", something that can weave a spell on us. Hence we have been deluded by the witchcraft of this botched civilization. A spell has been cast on us so that we cannot tell the difference between the good and the bad.

• And the "Quick eyes gone under earth's lid"? (4)

[Need help?]

There's very clearly a play on words here: eyes which are dead beneath the eyelids, but the earth's lids - referring to the coffin lids beneath the earth? And the term "quick" has at least two meanings. It can mean fast, sharp. The eyes were sharp to see things properly. On the other hand, "quick" is an archaic word - an old word - which means alive. But, if so, the poet is contrasting between those soldiers who are alive - "quick" - and those who are dead and buried.

• What do you think the poet is referring to when he speaks of "For two gross of broken statues, | For a few thousand battered books?" (4)

[Need help?]

I doubt very much whether the poet has something specific in mind, such as literally "two gross of broken statues", i.e. 2 x 144 = 288 broken statues. Or could he be saying, "two disgusting broken statues"? No, he is probably meaning something more metaphorical. The old creeds (beliefs) of the west - symbolised by the broken statues - have been destroyed, while the "few thousand books" have been "battered", i.e. all the old rules have been broken. It is time therefore to put aside the pointless destruction, turn our backs on all the so-called values of the "botched civilization", and start again. But this time without the lies of the capitalist politicians.

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