Essay - In A Station of the Metro the Apparition of These...

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Mike Meyer says that "images give us the physical world to experience in our imaginati*****s. Some poems...do just that; they make no comment about what they describe." This definition of images fits perfectly the images found in Ezra Pound's poem "IN A STATION ***** THE METRO." The concise two line ***** also is an example ***** Pound at work fulfilling his own dictum for what the ideal Imagist poem should be. In ***** February 15, 1912 issue of The New Age, Pound said:

We must have a simplicity of utterance, which is different from the ***** and directness of daily speech...This difference, this dignity, can*****t be conferred by florid adjectives or elaborate hyperbole; it must be conveyed ***** art and by the art of the verse structure, by something which exalts the reader, making him feel that he is in contact w*****h something arranged more finely than ***** commonplace. (Nuwer)

Just months later, in April, 1913, he published his famous haiku ***** Harriet Monroe's Poetry.

*****, in "IN A STATION OF THE METRO," cuts words to the bare bone. The adjectives are far from florid ***** the hyperbole is nonexistent. Yet there is something in his lines ***** "exalts" the reader lifting him above ***** "commonplace." In this haiku Pound demonstrates how a poet using concrete images about which he makes no comment at all can cre*****e a l*****sting memorable picture in the imag*****ation ***** the reader that rever*****rates with individual meaning depending on the percepti*****s of the individual.

***** the first line a specific physic*****l image is presented. From the title we already know that we ***** in a st*****tion of the Metro, and ***** general knowledge we are aw***** that the Metro ***** the underground subway in Paris. Now Pound allows us ***** see: "The apparition ***** these faces in the crowd."

It is amaz*****g what th***** few words manage to suggest through imaginative imagery. J*****t knowing that we are in a ***** station suggests a we*****lth of imagery including city, dirt, grime, underground, dullness, con*****mity, darkness, artificiality, unpleasant odors, work day routine. The word "*****" adds connotations ***** herd mentality, ***** humanity packed together. A cityscape in a crowded ***** or metro station connotes both a sense of the too real and the un*****. Masses of humanity elbow to elbow with scarcely room ***** breathe suggests dehumanization and the lonel*****ess of ***** individual. People jammed close enough to smell each other's body *****, but avoiding eye contact, so together, yet so separate. The fact ***** Pound s*****s us only faces at the metro station, not whole bodies, offers us a*****her possibility to develop the image. ***** per*****n doing the *****ing and ***** describing may be inside the train, passing quickly through a station, seeing ***** a blur of impersonal faces.

The w*****d "apparition" added to this mix brings in a sense of the strange ***** ghostly, build*****g