When analyzing Ezra Pound's "In a Station of The Metro", it is helpful to first review the Imagist manifesto to guide which elements of the text apply to the various commandments. Like most short poems, every word included in the poem was carefully chosen to add value to the piece. In fact, the second tenant of the imagist manifesto is that poets are not to use any word that does not contribute to the poem's presentation. Knowing this, a good place to start examining is the diction. The words are all familiar which is important because in a poem this short you can't be inflicted with unfamiliar words or else the whole flow of the reading is interrupted and the desired effect of a sort of ephemerality is lost. The last two words- black bough, is the only instance of alliteration in the poem. This salience infers a deeper meaning, which I will explore further in this post.
The meter of the poem is in alignment with the imagist manifesto's third tenant- the rhythm should be composed in a musical rather than metronome sequence. The meter alternates between stressed and unstressed syllables with an exception to the last two words - black bough, two stressed syllables. This aberration of meter may be meant to show the sharp contrast between the soft faces and the inanimate, dark infrastructure of a metro station. Perhaps the author uses the added stress to convey a sense of unease in the setting.
Another clue into understanding the poem is in its structure. The brevity of the piece is not unlike its subjects. The apparition of the faces suggests that people are bustling and either entering/leaving the train station. It happens quickly, the people are strangers, and the trains come and go so there is no time for lingering. The conciseness of the poem emulates that fleeting quality.
The poem does not follow any established poetic form as it is only one sentence. It own form however, a sentence split with a semicolon, is worth taking a deeper look into. The first half of the sentence describes the scene in the metro as it really appears- a crowd of faces. The part following the semicolon still describes the scene however, does so metaphorically. The metaphor relates the faces to petals on a wet branch and subtly brings a soft image of nature into a seemingly dark station. Also, contrasting to the initial image of faces being apparitions, the comparison of the faces to petals give them a more fleshy, soft feeling. This intense imagery gives the unknown faces a sense of life.
A poem like this was quite divergent from its predecessors at the time and its use of vivid imagery and brevity must've stricken readers. The imagist manifesto was written in 1913 and the purpose of "In a Station of the Metro" must've been to introduce this new type of poetic expression. From the content and its messages as well, it may be argued that Pound wrote this piece to express his feelings towards man and the machine.
You did a good job in analyzing the text and describing the scene, which helped me understand the poem better. Your idea that the meter of the poem is closer to musical than metronome sequence is creative and vivid. You interpret the scene of the station and petals as a contrast of dark and light, man-made building and nature. I agree with your point, but I also feel that faces in the dark station resembles petals on black bough. The two scenes are both similar and different from each other, which makes the poem appealing.
ReplyDeleteThe flow of your blog worked very well. It was easy to follow your argument and analysis of the poem. I especially loved the structure of the first paragraph. The way you start with a topic sentence introducing the poem as the subject of your analysis, then use a transition sentence – “Like most short poems…” – to introduce the second part of the prompt, the Imagist Manifesto, was very concise and easy to follow. Then your transition to the first criteria, was very smooth. The only critique I have is that in this first paragraph you add a sentence about the poem. I understand it would be difficult since the poem is so short and it is hard to summarize since it is hard to interpret. However, possibly even quoting the poem would be helpful, since it is short and it would also give the reader more background and therefore a better understanding of your analysis. I think it’s important, because it adds a little context to the beginning of the essay as opposed to jumping into the subject before the subject is even explained.
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