City vs. Country—Venice

In Venice Pound, following the steps of Ruskin and James, found an enchanting city. Many passages in the poetry are concerned with topographical details, plangent memories of sites, people, events. There is also a danger in the city’s beauty and decadence, and Pound eventually chose to live in a less charged setting, near Genoa. The ambiguous role in the poem of financier John Law, who died in Venice in poverty, reflects this ambivalence.