In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound is the epitome of an innovative modernist poet. He had one of the most controversial careers of any twentieth-century poet. As a poet, critic, and promoter of other writers, Pound was central to the development of modern poetry.

Imagism was a movement in early twentieth-century English and American poetry that sought “clarity of expression through the use of precise images”. This school of poetry flourished in England and America between 1912 and 1914. It was formulated in 1912 by eminent poets such as Ezra Pound and some other poets.

Ezra Pound was hailed by T. S. Eliot as “more responsible for the twentieth-century revolution in poetry as is any other individual" calling him "the better craftsman".

Donald Hall argues that “Pound made modern poetry possible in English".

Ezra Pound is well known for his images. He uses images in his writing in such a way that when read for the first time, they create a lot of images in the mind of the reader.

Pound is well known for his images. He uses images in his writing in such a way that when read for the first time, they create a lot of images in the mind of the reader. For instance, in his poem “In a Station of the Metro," the title itself gives an image of a metro station full of people. The images Pound suggests in the title tell the reader there may have been different kinds of people waiting for and disembarking from a station that just arrived at a certain metro station, and an image of a noisy place is clearly emphasized.

The poem itself only consists 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. It can be derived that these apparitions are something that Pound used to emphasize the number of people that are moving fast inside the station.

The author's use of the word 'apparition' is quite mysterious in the first line because apparitions are usually an allusion to supernatural and ghost-like figures. 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 through strong still creates a hint of wonder. The contrast is from something supernatural to something natural. It is another circumstance that is unlikely to happen in a metro station.

  From the images mentioned, the reader can derive a persona of a man sitting in the middle of a crowd of hasty people and observing them as they move like apparitions have been used to give the reader an idea of what is going through the mind of this man. The persona seems tired because he doesn't go along with the crowd of people, instead, he chooses to sit and observe them.

The petals on the wet black bough are something that the persona sitting in a metro 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 a mess. 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.