In a Station of the Metro response

Ezra Pound’s poem, “In a Station of the Metro,” most definitely defies the commonly referenced cliché that it is “quality not quantity” that matters. Although the poem does not possess the greatest length, it contains enough substance and ambiguity for multiple poems. The poem’s best asset is its imagery; concise in words, but prolonged in meaning. The comparison that Pound makes between the faces in a crowd and the petals on a tree is very obscure and interesting. It provokes several thoughts, such as that of anonymity. A face appearing in a crowd is an interesting image in the sense that they are part of a whole, much like petals are part of a whole. The faces are there not to complete any specific task except to create a mirage of similarity, once again much like the petals on tree. Both would be easily overlooked if the image were not presented so ambiguously by Pound. By only composing two sentences Pound is able to raise many questions as to why the faces are there, and why they relate to petals on a bough. Besides the abundant imagery created in the use of just two lines, Pound also manages to incorporate rhyme. The rhyme is comprised of the words “crowd” and “bough” which makes the rhyme a masculine one. However, a masculine rhyme is not the only type of rhyme included in the poem; the other is an end rhyme. The end rhyme conveniently is not the final observation that can be made in the poem because the two lines used are also a couplet. This couplet provides an added ambiguous tone to the poem through its overshadowing theme of anonymity. By having a structure of two lines and one stanza, Pound is able to manipulate her language with enough precision to create an environment of abruptness and variety. However, with all this structure jumbled at the audience very concisely, the symbolism must not be overlooked. Pound symbolizes the “apparition” of faces as a natural process, like that of petals appearing on a “black bough.”Ezra Pound’s poem is very concise in length; however, it is without a doubt a poem. He (Pound) should be commended on the basis that his poem is able to incorporate numerous elements of literature which lengthier poems often are not.