Poem
Analysis on Ezra Pound's “In the Station at the Metro”
By
Maria Theresa C. Lanit
In
a station of the metro
Ezra
Pound
The
apparition of these faces in a crowd:
Petals
on a wet, black bough
Affectivism
(Reader-Response)
The
poem when read for the first time creates a lot of images in the mind
of the reader. The title itself gives an image of a metro station
full of people. The images Pound suggest in the title tells the
reader that there may have been different kinds of people waiting for
and disembarking station trains that just arrived at the station in a
certain metro. An image of a noisy place is implicitly emphasize by
Pound at the title
The
poem itself is only consist of two lines but these two lines contain
a lot of imagery. Pound mentions an apparition of faces in a crowd in
the first line; the image of a crowd and the noise of this crowd is
emphasized as well. The line creates a wonder as to why there are
apparitions of faces and why these apparitions of faces are in a
crowd of people in a metro station. First, it can be derived that
these apparitions are something that Pound used to emphasis on the
number of people that are moving fast inside the station, however,
it cannot be concluded that these images indeed talks about that.
The
use of the word 'apparition' is quite mysterious in the first line
because apparitions are usually an allusion to the supernatural and ghost-like figures. If that analysis is to be considered then the
reader is lead to wonder why there are apparitions in a metro station
full of people where an occurrence as such is unlikely. It could be
that Pound wants to allude to the idea of death or dying in a crowd.
In
the next line, Pound introduces 'petals on a wet, black bough' which
is another image though strong still creates a hint of wonder. The
reader is given a contrast of images through the mention of the
petals and the wet black bough; the contrast is from something
supernatural to something natural. The addition of these images adds
more wonder because it is another circumstance that is unlikely to
happen in a metro station.
From
the images mentioned, the reader can derived a persona of a man who
is sitting in the middle of a station full of hasty people who seem
occupied with their daily routines observing the crowd of people, or
perhaps, even waiting for something. The persona seems tired because
he doesn't go along with the crowd of people, instead he chooses to
sit and observed them as they move like apparitions in the crowd. The
petals on the wet black bough is something that the persona has seen
while sitting in a bench at the station and could symbolize a
realization that the persona came into while in the metro. As to what
the realization may be, it is not clear but it could be something
about the life the persona has been living that seems to be in a mess
such as that of the mess the crowd of people in the metro station
creates. The bough could also symbolize an aspect of his life that
fell apart and fell into a crowd and, eventually, into oblivion
preventing his control over it.
Mimesis
Pound's
'In the station at the metro' readily suggest the idea of a
stirringly loud crowd who are clamoring in haste in the title. Pound
introduces a persona who is in the middle of the this loud clamoring
crowd silently observing the haste the it is making in the first
line. As the persona describes about his observations, his
description of “apparitions of faces in the crowd” coalesces with
the idea that is presented in the title of the poem. The persona sees
“apparition of faces” that is also associated with the idea in
the of death and dying that is presented in the second line where he
describes 'petals on a wet black bough'. “Petals” are represented
as a symbols for death and dying for they are withered pieces of a
flower; the same idea is also presented with the use of “bough”
for it is withered part of the tree. When the persona sees the
'petals on a wet, black bough' while he is seeing 'apparitions of
faces in a crowd' we are given an idea of the realization that dawn
on him as he sits in a station at the metro.
The
images in the poem creates mental images in the mind that greatly
affects the theme of the poem that which is about the transience of
life. Its representation of the images that are seemingly natural are
skillfully foreshadowed as death and dying.
Expressivism
Ezra
Pound was one of the proponents of Imagism which is a literary style
that focus of the presentation of images through writing before he
converted to another literary style. The poem 'In the station of the
metro' Pound gives a sample of Imagism as he gives so many
descriptions of images in few words, such as the lines 'apparitions
of these faces in a crowd' and 'petals on a wet black bough'.
Imagism usually focuses on the 'economy of language' which means the
words used should be directly related to the image that one wants to
create to it's reader's mind and not otherwise. It focus more on the
presentation of the subject rather than the subject itself.
In
the poem 'In the station of the metro' that Pound wrote while in a
metro station at La Concorde, Paris he could have come into a
realization of how transitory life is like that of the trains that
arrive and depart each hour at the station and the apparition-like
faces of people in the crowd. In the last line where he tries to
contrast the 'petals' which are usually depicted as soft and delicate
to that of the 'black bough' which in contrast are depicted as rough
and decayed Pound gives the reader descriptions of contrasting ideas
in nature. Pound describes a 'wet (black) bough' which could suggest
that while Pound was in the station a heavy rain occurred that broke
the bough and thus, rendering it to fall to the ground. Pound is
suggesting that the life is indeed transitory and that it is full of
unprecedented and contrasting ideas that needs to be dealt with, regarding less.
Formalism
As
mentioned earlier, Pound's poem contains intense descriptions of
nature. The title itself suggest images of hasty motion to the reader
and from these descriptions in the title, the reader is given an idea
of what the poem is about that which is how transitory life is. Metro
stations are considered bustling places where people have to pass
each day in order to get to their destination; this is one image
directly suggested in the title. These images are further made clear
in the succeeding lines as Pound further talks about 'apparition of
faces in a crowd' which could be seen in two aspects. The line
'apparition of faces in a crowd' could mean that the crowd is moving
rapidly making the persona who has been observing the crowd closely
see them as mere apparitions. The use of the word 'apparition' also
suggest an temporal idea of an existence of life which is the theme
suggested in the poem.
These
temporal idea of existence is further played by Pound in the second
line of the poem as he describes 'petals on a wet, black bough'. The
use of the word 'petals' and 'bough' suggest the idea of falling and
withering like that of a petal falling off from a flower or branch
falling from a tree. The idea of a petal or a branch falling off from
a flower or a tree (respectively) alludes to the idea of death or
dying. These two images encourages the idea presented at the title of
Pound's poem where he suggest a temporal idea of existence. The use
of the word 'bough' as the last word is also note worthy for it
suggest the fear the persona feels towards the idea of life, death
and dying. The word 'bough' is another word for 'gallows' that means
device used to execute criminals in the early centuries, and the use
of it as the last word in the poem suggest the persona's impasse in
the realization of temporal existence. Pound also uses 'wet' to
describe the 'petals on a (wet) black bough' which suggest that it
must have rained while the persona stayed at the station at the
metro and it is because of this rain the bough fell. These brief and
sharp descriptions of the 'bough' alone suggest incapability to
prevent any bad circumstance that occurs in life.
Pound
uses the conciseness of images to suggest that life is indeed
transient and that life no matter how one tries to elude it would
always lead to one thing that which is death. Some critics suggest
that the poem is an example of 'Memento Mori'
(Latin
- 'remember
that you will die')
and it could very well be.
It could very well be a reminder to mortality.
