"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound 

Historical Context

 ‘In a Station of the Metro’ predates all of this, however — it was published in 1913 in a literary magazine, and was written based on an emotion Pound had felt during a moment standing in a Paris underground metro station in the previous year. Pound’s anger and resentment of capitalism and the British government was forged by the bloodshed of World War I, and so while none of his bitterness made its way into this text, the complexity of his worldview certainly had.

The original draft of ‘In a Station of the Metro’ was thirty lines long; Pound was able to cut it down to fourteen words in an attempt to focus entirely on the economy of his language, and the important images only. The process of deletion expresses a modernist-style desire to break away from the typical poetic styles of the time period. Because of its succinctness and unique style, it is considered one of the foremost examples of Imagist poetry, even today. 

Although what would follow in Pound’s life was a long and difficult period of controversy and unhappiness, this poem stands as a strong legacy to his unique worldview, and incredible capacity to explain and demonstrate powerful emotions with simple images, different thinking, and, of course, some of the best economy of the written word that could possibly exist in poetry.

Title : 

Objectively, the meaning of this poem is straightforward—but interpretations are more complex. The title, "In a Station of the Metro," locates the poem in the Paris Metro. From the perspective of Pound and his contemporaries, this poem takes place now, in a world that is changing, speeding up, and growing more technologically complex.

Years after writing this poem, Pound described the moment that inspired it: "I got out of a 'metro' train at La Concorde, and saw suddenly a beautiful face, and then another and another ... and I tried all that day to find words for what this had meant to me." This poem is Pound's attempt to replicate his emotions in that single "lovely" moment. He is explicitly not trying to explain or interpret the feeling and not trying to enhance it with poetic devices such as similes or allusion.

On one level, such a goal is impossible, for all language is symbolic. The poem does not physically, literally, pick readers up and place them in a Paris Metro station, but it comes as close as it can. It uses concrete words like station and Metro and relies on the reader's knowledge and imagination to fill in the rest. Thus, readers have considerable leeway in how they interpret even these short words. Depending on their backgrounds and personalities, readers may make associations between Pound's words and other experiences or literary works.

Critics have noted some of the most basic associations with the title of this poem. One of these relates to the way Pound phrases the title: "In a Station of the Metro," rather than the more concise "In a Metro Station." Pound's wording could bring to mind the stations of the cross. In the Catholic religion these refer to a series of 14 images of Jesus Christ's last day on Earth, from his condemnation to his death, and to a set of corresponding prayers worshippers make in front of each image. This association could help prepare readers for the experience of epiphany, or awakening, the poem elicits later on.

Entering a Metro station requires a trip underground, so it is also possible to associate the poem with hell or the underworld. This association could be unsettling, leaving readers dissociated from their accustomed habitat, as some early Metro riders might have felt when they descended underground to travel around their city. It could also bring to mind several stories from Greek mythology. Heroes from Greek myths, including Orpheus and Odysseus, sometimes traveled to the underworld, which was populated with a crowd of souls. The idea meshes with the otherworldly eeriness and large crowd presented to readers in the first line of the poem. Associations with the underworld may also bring to mind the Greek goddess Persephone. The story of Persephone, who was thought to bring spring every year by traveling from Hades back to Earth, echoes with the image of petals in the second line of the poem.

Analysis:

The brevity of this poem can be intimidating to analyze; after all, how much can a poet possibly convey in merely two lines? However, the shortness of this poem fits with its topic; when reading, the words flash by quickly, just as a subway speeds away from the platform in an instant. The doors open quickly, revealing a sea of faces, and then close again - the faces are gone after a fleeting glance. This poem's length and quick pace matches the constant motion of a train as it speeds by.

Though short, this poem is very sensory in nature; it allows the reader to imagine a scene while reading the lines. Through Pound's economical description of these faces as "petals on a wet, black bough," he is able to invoke a transient tone.

This poem is also a clear example of the Imagist style. Victorian poets would frequently use an abundance of flowery adjectives and lengthy descriptions in their poems. Yet Pound employs a Modernist approach to "In a Station of the Metro," using only a few descriptive words (and no verbs among them) to successfully get his point across.

Pound uses the word "apparition," which is a ghostly, otherworldly figure, something ephemeral that fades in and out of view. By using this word, Pound reveals surprise at seeing this sea of faces as the subway doors open, which, for a brief moment, fills him with a sense of awe and astonishment. Also, the impermanence of the image gives the poem a melancholy tone, as if Pound is contemplating the fragility of life.

Pound connects images of petals and boughs to a mass of humanity - linking a man-made metropolitan scene with the cycles of nature. Pound's use of living metaphors adds to the fleeting tone of this poem. Flowers and trees, like human beings on a metro, are constantly moving, growing, and changing. This short glimpse through the metro doors is the only time that group of people will be as they are in that instant. Similarly, no two petals will ever look exactly the same, as rains come and go, winters freeze, and new buds bloom.