The City of Choan
The City of Choan - meaning Summary
Loss and Faded Grandeur
Pound's short lyric evokes a once-glorious city, now faded and overtaken by nature. Mythic images—phoenix, dynastic houses, bright cloths—signal former splendor, while empty terraces, a solitary river, and splitting streams mark decline. Distant mountains and clouded sun increase physical and emotional distance, leaving the speaker unable to see Choan and feeling sadness. The poem sketches loss, historical decay, and the melancholy of separation from a vanished cultural center.
Read Complete AnalysesThe phoenix are at play on their terrace. The phoenix are gone, the river Hows on alone. Flowers and grass Cover over the dark path where lay the dynastic house of the Go. The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin Are now the base of old hills. The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven, The isle of White Heron splits the two streams apart. Now the high clouds cover the sun And I can not see Choan afar And I am sad.
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