Piccadilly
Piccadilly - meaning Summary
Compassion for Urban Decay
Pound’s short poem notices the array of faces in an urban crowd and mourns what has been lost. It contrasts brutish, coarse types with fragile, wistful ones who once were whole but are now sunken, sodden, or forgotten. The speaker feels sorrow and a troubled compassion: unable fully to pity the brazen, he nevertheless asks who remembers the delicate and vulnerable among the crowd.
Read Complete AnalysesBeautiful, tragical faces— Ye that were whole, and are so sunken; And, O ye vile, ye that might have been loved, That are so sodden and drunken, Who hath forgotten you? O wistful, fragile faces, few out of many! The crass, the coarse, the brazen, God knows I cannot pity them, perhaps, as I should do; But oh, ye delicate, wistful faces, Who hath forgotten you?
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