Song of the Six Hundred
Song of the Six Hundred - meaning Summary
Satire of Ruling Class
Pound satirically depicts a gathering of six hundred complacent, wealthy men who meet to protect bankers and preserve power. The poem mocks their hypocrisy, uselessness, and detachment from ordinary life through coarse dialect and vivid images of poverty contrasted with elite comfort. Britain is personified as proud and defensive of these men despite their flaws, emphasizing the poem's critique of political and social complicity in preserving an unjust order.
Read Complete Analyses‘We are 'ere met together in this momentous hower, Ter lick th' bankers' dirty boots an' keep the Bank in power.’ We are 'ere met together ter grind the same old axes And keep the people in its place a'payin' us the taxes. We are six hundred beefy men (but mostly gas and suet) An’ every year we meet to let some other feller do it.' I see their 'igh 'ats on the seats an' them sprawling on the benches And thinks about a Rowton 'ouse and a lot of small street stenches. 'O Britain, muvver of parliaments, 'ave you seen yer larst sweet litter? Could yeh swap th' brains of orl this lot fer 'arft a pint o' bitter?' ‘I couldn't,' she sez, ‘an' I aint tried, They're me own,' she sez to me, ‘As footlin' a lot as was ever spawned to defend democracy.'
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