In a Station of the Metro

The poem in its entirety serves as an experience. However, the title and the poem’s two lines also serve as independent experiences working together to create a larger experience. The title establishes the urban setting. In this urban setting, the people blur together, appearing like “apparitions” (Line 1). The “apparitions” (Line 1) are ghostly, haunting, and their appearance adds to the fleeting nature of the poem and the speaker’s experience. The word “faces” (Line 1) is also an important key in this line. “Faces” (Line 1) makes the line more personal, which contrasts the title’s objectivity. The speaker’s usage of the word “faces” (Line 1) is also important because a person’s face is typically what others notice first. Facial expressions are a means of communication. Faces are also how people distinguish one person from another. However, the speaker’s usage of the word “apparition” (Line 1) in correlation to “faces” (Line 1) also conveys the speaker’s detachment. The speaker is involved and present in the scene, and yet because they cannot connect with anyone specific, they are detached. Also, the metro’s crowd and busyness detach the speaker. The distancing also acts as a transition in the poem, and the speaker becomes even more detached from the scene.

The vitality and implied brightness of the “Petals on a wet, black bough” (Line 2) contrast the dull urbanity expressed in the title and first line. The “black bough” (Line 2) creates a sense of disparity, which is reinforced by not only the line’s brevity, but also the poem’s. The disparity develops because the image leaves readers with a sense of the unknown and the unfinished. This is compounded by the word “black” (Line 2), which stereotypically has connotations with death, negativity, emptiness, and uncertainty. The word “black” (Line 2) is the penultimate word in the poem, which also reinforces a sense of dangling and disparity. The disparity also forms because the second line is the only glimmer of life and vitality in the poem, since the title and the first line rely on stilted, urban images.

The poem is also a profound statement regarding the role of the individual. By discerning the “faces” (Line 1) from the crowd, even equating them with “apparitions” (Line 1) and “Petals” (Line 2), the speaker provides commentary about the masses and individuality. The “apparitions” (Line 1) possess a supernatural, a ghost-like quality, which gives them a sense of otherness. The word “faces” (Line 1) provides humanity. However, a sense of otherness permeates because of the word “apparitions” (Line 1). This individuality continues in Line 2. The speaker implies that the “Petals” (Line 2) are vibrant and contrast the “wet, black bough” (Line 2). “Petals” (Line 2) is plural, and though they stand together collectively, they are still individualistic against the dullness of the metro and the bough. The speaker’s focus on them brings awareness to natural elements, which stand individualistically in an urban setting.

Punctuation, specifically the colon, plays an important role in the poem since the punctuation a poet selects contributes to the poem’s aural qualities. In “In a Station of the Metro,” Pound utilizes the colon, a punctuation mark which precedes an explanation, a list, or a quoted sentence. In Pound’s poem, the colon creates dissonance. It contributes to the poem’s visual appearance. Other than the comma between the words “wet” (Line 2) and “black” (Line 2) and the ending period, it is only one of three punctuation marks used. The colon also creates stability, since it signals to readers that an explanation, or something more concrete, follows the opening line. However, the colon represents an internal shift. It shifts the poem from an urban setting to a more natural one. It also contributes to the dissonance and disparity in the poem by separating the speaker and the reader from the metro’s busy setting. The colon also reinforces the idea of an individual standing apart from the masses, since it acts as a shift, a separation, and also a transition into a more distinct idea and setting that wanders into the unknown and the inconclusive. The colon also shifts the poem’s energy. First, it blocks the busyness from entering a quaint, meditative setting. It then acts as a cluster where the image emerges and transforms into a moment. At this point, the colon becomes the poem’s operator and the speaker’s unrealized moment of pause. The image of “Petals on a wet, black bough” (Line 2) embodies the speaker’s attempt to transform experience into language.