"In a Station of the Metro" Response

Instead of trying to argue against critics of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” one should first recognize the simple definition of what a poem truly is. Olograhpes Literary defines a poem as “an arrangement of words in an artistic aim.” With that said, it is impossible to exclude such a beautiful piece as this. Upon researching a little into the history of the poem, a reader could find out that Pound actually condensed this poem from thirty lines to the mere fourteen words that it has come to be. It took him two years to come up with an “equation” which he felt would do justice to an actual moment of his life when he was at the Metro Station in Paris. The imagery is so vivid that one can almost see “these faces in the crowd.” It is interesting that the poem contains absolutely no verbs. Pound could be portraying to his audience that action need not be taken to see the beauty in life and in people. However, the actual content does not suggest anything of the sort. A good poet will often, intentionally, use grammar that contains some ambiguity to keep their readers interested. Perhaps, that is Pound’s goal in this case.

Pound starts off describing the faces in the crowd, and continues, after the semicolon, to use a metaphor to describe them. He chooses to use a semicolon to separate this two-line couplet form. This is one of the only parts of punctuation used in the piece, which suggests that it is a pivotal moment. Being that the poem is so short in length, Pound’s choice of words is especially important and happens to be quite thought-provoking. It is worthy to note that Pound uses the word “apparition” to describe the faces, as it usually refers to something more mystical and supernatural. This then leads to the fact that Pound could possibly believe that he is seeing the spirit of people as they are going about their every day lives. This creates a relatively blurry image in the first line, which is contrasted by the vivid image in line two of the “petals on a wet, black bough.” The reader can also see that same sense of contrast within that line with the feminine beauty of the petals against the dullness of the “black bough.” Pound uses several tools to make it clear that “In a Station of the Metro” is not only a poem, but is a remarkable one.