In the metro by Ezra pound

Jessica Ward

    The poem In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound, builds on itself and the word choice of the author creates a very well structured imagery. Seeing that the poem is only two lines, the author puts a lot of meaning in just a few lines as seen in the following: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet, black bough.” We are able to see that the poem creates a type of flow from one image to the next. For example, the first line of the poem says “the apparition of these faces in the crowd.” From this phrase we are able to gather a lot of evidence of what the poem is trying to say, such as the choice of the word apparition which means “the ghost or ghostlike image of a person” (Google.com). The author choose this word to describe the people in the crowd because their faces are like a reflection of who they are. The people in the crowd seems to be imitating “ghosts” in some way because they are “gliding” across the walkway in the metro or even just standing there lost as a ghost would be. The author also continues to say that , “petals on a wet, black bough”; the author choose to describe bough in a very simple way because he could have described it in a ways, such as a dark bough or even a very dark black bough. As a result of Pound choosing his wording very carefully, it leads the reader to have this simple description in their mind of a tree at night after the rain has stopped, which also started to bloom flowers. The way Things are described in this short poem it helps the reader to make the connection of people feeling invisible among a crowded place while having them recall how it also feels to be invisible.

    Based on the word choice of the author we able to see how things flow and come together’ even though the poem is only two lines. However, Pound carefully choose his words and puts a lot of thought and meaning behind each word, which makes the poem interesting to read. Such as when Pound hints that the narrator of the poem may be uncomfortable around crowded areas or wishes to not become like everyone else. The structure of the poem helps with the meaning and word choice because having a short poem one must get their point across in a very direct why which Pound has done very nicely. The poem also does a nice job of falling within the confines of the imagist manifesto. It falls within the imagist manifesto because the poem presents an intellectual and emotional reaction that people could relate and react to. Pound had managed to get the reaction he was hoping for by writing in such a complex way which makes the reader stop and take the time to think about what the poem could possibly mean.

Even though the poem is written in Japanese haiku style and has no rhyme to it, it is still able to portray its meaning though the description of nature. Reading over the poem at least once, one is able to tell that it gives an appropriate description between people and nature while also comparing the two. Pound compares two distant things in such few words as possible in a way that had the reader go back and find the meaning which was described above. Something that is also interesting that Pound has done was that very word has at least one vowel or two, which creates this rhyme of how he wants the words too flow within the poem but also with one another.

Word count: 631