Blog Post #2, Topic #2

Ezra Pound’s famous poem “In a Station of the Metro” embodies the ideas of the imagist movement that was sprouting in the early 1900s. The whole poem is composed of only 14 words, similar to a haiku, yet a quiet different style than that exhibited during the time like “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot. Although the poem is concise with its word choice and is condensed in form, Pound uses short yet powerful images of contrasting urban life with nature to convey a message about our society.

Pound's choice in diction and form presents a vivid picture for the reader to digest. The poem’s title, which consist of an equal amount of words as the last line, gives the bulk of the setting of the poem. The reader must realize that the poem is taking place in a metro station which is associated with life in the flourishing city. The opening statement of the two-line poem starts out with word “apparition”, which gives the poem an ominous tone. Apparition’s refer to the appearance of something spectacular or unexpected, usually referring to ghosts or a spirit appearing out of nowhere. Pound’s selective diction of this phrase gives off the impression that the faces are moving at a fast pace, quick enough that their faces look like blurry ghosts passing through a street. Instead of describing the faces in the crowd as hazy due to movement throughout the course of ten lines, he condenses his thought into one precise word that opens up the reader’s imagination. In addition, the form in the first line mimics that of a fast paced metro station, with the rhythm similar to a chugging train. He uses this meter and choppiness of lines to emphasize the hectic city component that prevails in human lifestyle. This choice in diction and rhythmic allusion creates a rich and compelling image in a direct manner.

The last line accentuates the contrasting images that Pound is presenting between the noisy urban life and the peacefulness of nature. He completes the portrait of the people rushing through the metro by comparing the faces to petals on a branch. The use of the word “petals” give the faces a purer, natural and unique feel. In addition, petals are still very uniform in nature with most of them in the same color and general shape. Pound could have described the people as different flowers budding from a vast landscape but instead chooses to compare humans to similarly structured petals. Pound also adds one color, black, to describe the tree branch. The color black is usually associated with darkness, death and dreariness which adds further to the ominous tone from earlier in the poem. Pound does not voice his opinions about the world around him but instead uses the dark branch to describe the depressing world that all the uniform petals, or humans, are continuously passing by. The divergent structure of the poem creates a comparison that conveys a message about society; urban and natural life are intertwined and humans must learn to appreciate this or life will quickly slip away.

Pound expresses the imagist manifesto by producing a short contrasting image to articulate his grievances with society and the booming industrial market. His technique is unique because he does not include any verbs or comparison words to bring about the juxtaposition. He incorporates a choppy rhythm similar to a metro passing, laconic yet sharp diction and unique prose to express his vision. The contrast of the blurred faces to petals on a bough emphasizes the disassociation between urban lifestyle and pure nature that Pound wants to bring to attention in a concise and poetic manner.