In Pound We Trust: The Economy of Poetry/The Poetry of Economics

An earlier version of this essay was delivered at the Western Humanities Conference, Berkeley, in October 1984. A number of subsequent analyses of Pound's poetics/economics have since appeared, many of which complement (and further nuance) my initial argument. Among the recent studies I have found most illuminating are Peter Nicholls, Ezra Pound: Politics, Economics and Writing; Robert Casillo, "Troubadour Love and Usury in Ezra Pound's Writings"; Andrew Parker, "Ezra Pound and the 'Economy' of Anti-Semitism"; and JeanMichel Rabat6, Language, Sexuality, and Ideology in Ezra Pound's "Cantos." In revising my piece, I have tried to indicate both in the body of the essay and in the notes those areas in which our approaches confirm each other and overlap.