The City of Choan
The phœnix are at play on their terrace.The phœnix are gone, the river flows on alone.Flowers and grassCover over the dark pathwhere lay the dynastic house of the Go.The bright cloths and bright caps of ShinAre now the base of old hills.
The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven,The isle of White Heronsplits the two streams apart.Now the high clouds cover the sunAnd I can not see Choan afarAnd I am sad.
Words in this poem
- dynastic a.
- Of or relating to a dynasty or line of kings. Motley. [Gr. dunastique.]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The City of Choan is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, The City of Choan, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/the-city-of-choan.html, id L01318.
Form and metre
The City of Choan is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-A---- terraceA · alone · grassA · path · go · shin · hills
- 2 AA-A-- heavenA · heronA · apart · sunA · afar · sad
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The phœnix are at play on their terrace. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| The phœnix are gone, the river flows on alone. | 12 | ······/˘··˘/ |
| Flowers and grass | 4 | /˘·· |
| Cover over the dark path | 7 | /˘····· |
| where lay the dynastic house of the Go. | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin | 8 | ········ |
| Are now the base of old hills. | 7 | ······· |
| The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| The isle of White Heron | 6 | ····/˘ |
| splits the two streams apart. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Now the high clouds cover the sun | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And I can not see Choan afar | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And I am sad. | 4 | ···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.