IN A STATION OF THE METRO - POEM EXPLANATION - EZRA POUND
'In a Station of the Metro' Poem
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.
Glossary
1. metro an underground railway system in a city
2 apparition a sudden or dramatic appearance especially of a ghost or phantom.
Explanatory Notes
1. Pound saw a number of faces when he got off the train at the station. The experience he underwent is expressed through the use of a metaphor. He felt that the faces appeared like petals that stick to a wet, black bough. The reader is expected to see the blackness of the bough against whose background the colourful petals stand contrasted here the colourful faces of people against the dark background of the station. The few petals that stick to the bough remind us of the shower of petals that fall with rain or a gust of wind. Only a few petals managed to stick to the bough. In a large crowd of people at the railway station only a few remain glued to the poet's imagination and find a place in the poem.
2. Equating an experience in terms of touch or sight or smell is what Pound called 'image' or 'vortex'. He defined an image as 'that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time'. An objective correlative needs to be devised in order to render the experience exactly as the poet experienced it.
3. This composition is clearly influenced by the Japanese haiku or hokku-a lyric form of seventeen syllables that represents the poet's impression of a natural object or scene, viewed at a particular season, or month.
4. This poem like William Carlos Williams' 'The Red Wheelbarrow' is just not paraphrasable.
