A Few Short Lines

In a Station of The Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

— Ezra Pound

4 Responses

  1. Picture ThousandThis is one
    Picture Thousand

    This is one of my favorite poems. It is concise, beautiful and not exactly vague but rather elusive. I have always pictured it as a snapshot of a blank face in a crowd – as Eliot puts it in the context of London Bridge stealing a line from Dante “I had not thought death had undone so many.” The alternate picture I have in my head is a blank petal frailly melting into the black bough. The photograph shown here throws way too much color upon my modern view, but I enjoy the perspective and any chance to discuss “In a Station of the Metro”

  2. Thanks Alex — I think
    Thanks Alex — I think there’s a lot said in just a few short lines, and I find that I gravitate toward and identify more with succinct poetry than epic length works.

    I would have liked to get a saturated view of a lone blush petal on a branch, but alas pale blank blossoms are out of season by about a week here. In any case, I saw this along the road today and these lines kept repeating.

  3. undeniably luscioushoodwinked
    undeniably luscious

    hoodwinked mind
    refreshed in an instance

  4. 2 versions by PoundPound
    2 versions by Pound

    Pound wrote this 2 ways, and the first version is spaced very differently than the posted version.

    But this posting system deletes all the spaces no matter how I insert them.

    Well, if someone can post the other version, it would be nice to compare them.

    Also, Pound wrote 2 different essays explaining why and how he wrote this poem, but he never explained the spacing.

    I like the first one better. How ’bout you?

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