In a Station of the Metro

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1913

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Reality Versus Imagination

The speaker’s observation of a crowd in a subway prompts the speaker to imagine petals on a wet tree branch. The brevity of time is striking between Line 1 and Line 2, creating the sense that life and experience occur in a fleeting instant. The brevity combines what is happening before the speaker’s eyes with what is happening in their mind. This then combines with the speaker’s reality. The three blend together to form yet a new reality. Sight and imagination work together, and the poem morphs into a conversation about how the sense of sight works with the concept of imagination to shape an individual’s perception of the world around them.

The poem’s rawness is emphasized because of its brevity. The basic, imagistic descriptions contribute to a sense of spontaneity. The poem catches the speaker’s act of visually processing the experience. Because the poem lacks verbs, it develops a quickness and creates a blending of the first and second lines. This quickness and blending also forms a sense of oscillation. This oscillation and blending works to create the ghost-like feel carried by the word “apparition” (Line 1). This is reinforced by the “faces” (Line 1), which appear spontaneously and briefly in the crowd.

Urban Life

“Black” (Line 2) and “wet” (Line 2) are the adjectives modifying the word “bough” (Line 2). Because of the poem’s brevity, readers may also associate these adjectives with the metro station referenced in the poem’s title. The speaker’s usage of the words “station” and “metro” in the title establish the poem’s urban setting. This urban setting juxtaposes the poem’s natural imagery, creating opposition. The human world is vastly different from the natural world. Again, the word “apparition” (Line 1) creates a ghostly feel. The word “crowd” (Line 1) implies anonymity, monotony, homogeny. The speed at which urban life functions, even in the metro, blurs the faces. Though Pound could have instead used the word “people,” he creates an individuality that urbanity ignores by personalizing the experiences and using the word “faces” (Line 1). The speaker’s metro experience quickly dissolves into something lackluster, much like the indistinguishable faces.

Natural World

In two brief lines, Pound establishes that the natural world lies not so out of reach from the urban world. The peaceful setting offered by the thought of “Petals on a wet, black bough” (Line 2) contrasts the speed and swift pace of the poem’s title and the “faces” (Line 1) in the “crowd” (Line 1). The second line utilizes the concrete nouns “Petals” and “bough” and the distinctive adjectives “wet” and “black.” With the focused description of these lines, the speaker prioritizes the natural world. As the images blur together, the city becomes like a tree, with the bough representing the metro station. The faces represent the tree’s leaves. This interpretation creates a sense of connectivity and reinforces the idea that humanity is connected to and supported by the natural world even in an urban setting. The implication is that despite their conflicts and contradictions, the natural world and the urban one still function under the same set of cyclical, universal cycles.