And the City Now Has Gone

Name: And the City Now Has Gone
Author: Pablo Neruda

The poem is a lament for a lost city, evoking its past grandeur and beauty. The speaker describes the city's downfall, using imagery to convey a sense of desolation and decay. The poem explores themes of nostalgia, loss, and the fleeting nature of human achievement.

By Pablo Neruda · First published 1977 · Genre: Poetry, Existentialism, Philosophical Literature · 188 words

First lines

How the clock moves on, relentlessly, with such assurance that it eats the years.

The days are small and transitory grapes, the months grow faded, taken out of time.

It fades, it falls away, the moment, fired by that implacable artillery- and suddenly, only a year is left to us, a month, a day, and death turns up in the diary.

No one could ever stop the water's flowing; nor thought nor love has ever held it back.

What this Textopian page supports

And the City Now Has Gone is listed on Textopian as a poem by Pablo Neruda, dated 1977 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Work type: Poem
Author: Pablo Neruda
Date: 1977 CE
Language: English
Genres: Poetry, Existentialism, Philosophical Literature, Modernist Literature, Urban Literature
Length: 188 words
Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Poetry — The work employs lyrical language and explores deep emotional themes, characteristic of poetry.
Existentialism — The themes of time, death, and the human condition reflect existentialist concerns.
Philosophical Literature — The text engages with philosophical ideas about existence, time, and mortality.
Modernist Literature — The fragmented narrative and focus on subjective experience align with modernist literary techniques.