[1] Usury or lending money at interest (Latin). Pound interpreted this practice
as the root of all corruption in the modern world, the cause of the separation
of the worker ? whether farmer, laborer, or artist ? from work.
[3] Since production is not valued as the result of usury, the brick layers
present a poor job; hence the blocks do not fit properly.
[4] Their face refers to the walls, and it means there are no decorations on the
walls. Usury kills the spirit of art.
[5] Refers to the paintings on the churches walls.
[6] Harps and lutes (Latin). In medieval and Renaissance depictions of
Paradise, the angels are shown playing on such instruments.
[7] Description of scenes in religious paintings, especially the annunciation,
where the Virgin Mary is informed that she is to be the mother of Christ. The
scene might have involved cutting (incision) and the narrator describes the
light (halo) that emits from the carving.
[8] Luigi Gonzaga (1267- 1360), prince of Mantua and founder of a dynasty
that ruled that Italian city until the 18th century. Seeth is see (Old English).
[9] Wives of the king. The speaker believes that usury shatters the structure of
ruling in a country thorough the king. And his dynasty, heir, as a result
disappears.
[10] No painter keeps his painting as a valuable piece of art, and they rather
sell it for its price.
[11] You bread would not be fresh and edible; it'd be dry and stale and taste
like a rag.
[12] Your bread does not have a good quality.
[13] As the poem suggests the bread maker used to go to the mountains and
reap wheat.
[14] The flour is of poor quality.
[15] Demarcation means the line specifying boundaries between two
territories, and is unclear as the result of usury.
[16] People do not know where exactly their dwelling is located.
[17] The stonecutter leaves his job.
[18] The weaver stops working with a weaving apparatus (loom) and
produces threads.
[19] People cannot get anything because the economy is weak.
[21] The needle gets blunt as a result of not being used. Pound is repeatedly
mentioning the unwillingness towards production since the ones practicing
usury gain more money than the real laborers.
[22] Spinner (a person who makes threads by twirling wool, etc.) loses its
craft (cunning) because of not putting it into practice.
[23] Italian sculptor (1435-1515).
[24] Duccio di Buoninsegna (1260?-1318?), an Italian painter.
[25] Piero della Francesca (1420?-1492), an Italian painter.
[26] Giovanni Bellini (1430?-1516), an Italian painter. The last three people
were Italian painters from Florence and nearby towns.
[27] Rumor (Italian); allegorical painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510),
one of the greatest of the Italian Renaissance painters.
[28] Fra Angelico (1387?-1455) was an Italian painter.
[29] Ambrogio Praedis (1455?-1506) was an Italian painter.
[30] Adam made me (Latin); words carved into the church of San Zeno
Maggiore in Verona, Italy. To Pound, a symbol of the architect’s pride in and
feeling of connection with his work. Medieval churches in the French cities of
Arles and Poitiers, respectively.
[31] The chisel gets rusty because of being used.
[32] The thread has remained in the loom, so it is worn out.
[33] Looms will stop working. Production ceases.
[34] Nobody will beautify the patterns on cloth with gold. No beauty or
generosity is creating it.
[35] Heavy crimson cloth (French).
[36] Hans Memling (1430?-1495), Flemish painter.
[37] Kills. Production no matter be it in art world, in stock or in human
generation is stopped.
[38] There is no more romance for young people because women marry the
rich but old.
[39] Complete or partial paralysis. Pound is continuing his theme of the
stopping of production, and here he means not producing any children.
[40] Against nature (Latin). He believes usury in every field of production
is acting against natural procedure.
[41] City in ancient Greece, northwest of Athens, where secret religious
rites in honor of Demeter and Persephone, the goddess of fertility and her
daughter, were celebrated by priestesses every spring. The substitution of
whores for priestesses represents the degradation of ancient rituals. Note also
that in a capitalistic society prostitution is developed because production is
not supported and thus diminishes.
[42] The loan sharks (corpses), since they are rich and married; hence they
are in the wedding party (banquet) rather than young men who are mere
laborers and in possession of great deal of money. Note the use of banquet
instead of party or reception since the word banquet goes with the rituals that
was mentioned in the previous number.
[43] Command. Pound has turned Usury to a powerful sick agent acting in a
sick economic system.
ANALYSIS
Usury, as it is repeated more and more in the middle part of the poem like a cancerous
tumor that is spreading on and on, is looming in Pound's mind. Although Marx’s fans
might like the poem, for it criticizes the sick capitalistic economic system, they have
good cause to attack it. Let us see how.
From the very beginning up to the end, Pound is attacking usury, for as its main effect
it eradicates production in every domain. The weaver, spinner and the maid withdraw
their art since it really does not pay comparing to the great deal of money the loan
sharks gain while they do not even move a muscle. There are no more paintings on
church walls; no one paints pictures for artistic ends and the artists die out for their
art is not valued. Even very basic needs of human beings are met: the bread is of very
low quality, the house is laid carelessly, and worse than that romance between young
people is never going to be happen because women marry the loaded ones not the
laborers. If we approach the poem from this angle, it has a lot to say to condemn
capitalistic society and usury as its incarnate. However, the poem criticizes usury at
the service of a monarchy; in a society in which the laborers’ production is sought for
the sake of the king: with usura seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines.
There is no epic like picture of the real laborers and artists. They are even mentioned
after Gonzaga and his heirs and concubines.
Pound does not often leave his readers a clear cut point of view, but his poems to
some extent possess a negative capability that provides the readers with differing
stuff. ‘Usura’ although heavily condemning usury and showing its fatal effects by
enumerating different artists and workers, who have abandoned working, and stating
that the ones who are working are doing a poor job, never really represents a
praiseful picture of them and indeed regrets their lack of production as serving the
ruling authority.
Maryam Akbari