Literature

A first reading of Ezra Pounds brief poem, In a Station of the Metro, raises many more questions than it answers.  One does not normally associate references to ghosts, flower petals and black boughs to a metro station and this is perhaps the first startling feature of the poem.  There seems, if one reads the poem literally, to be a lack of sense and rational thought.  It is only when this poem if read over and over again that it becomes readily apparent that a literal interpretation is probably not intended and that meaning must instead be derived from a figurative analysis of the words in the setting created by the poet.  After a couple of dozen readings, it seems to me that Pound is commenting on the continuity of the human experience.  More specifically, the metro might be a metaphor for the life transportation that all human beings experience and it is within this setting of a metro representing the human life cycle that Pound comments on the human life experience.  This paper will discuss why I believe that this universal type of theme, the continuity of human existence despite old age and death, best characterizes this poem.

I was immediately forced to cease my reading when I came upon the reference to apparitions a resort to a dictionary suggested that this could refer to either a ghost or the dead.  Both of these definitions are somewhat frightening and my initial thought was that this might have been intended as a dark poem.  Further reflection, after reading the entire poem together, convinces me that this is not a dark poem.  First, the poet links these apparitions to what he calls the faces that can be seen in the stations crowd.  There is no distinction between the living and the dead instead, the poets words seem either to equate the living and the dead or to use the apparition reference as a metaphor for human mortality and rebirth.  Both interpretations suggest a certain type of consistency in the human experience.  That consistency is the fact that all human beings are born and die all human beings are part of a larger human phenomenon that transcends their own individual lives or a particular moment in time at the metro.  The live faces in the stations crowd and even the metro are somewhat tangential except for their figurative import to the poet.  My first response, therefore, is that this is a poem celebrating the gift of human life and counseling that individual life is a gift very much like a one-way ticket with no return.  Life should be embraced and enjoyed to the extant possible.

My second response is that, in addition to celebrating the gift of human life, this poem is also serving as a warning in certain respects.  This can be deduced from an analysis of the references to petals and black boughs within the larger context of the poem.  Again, it seems doubtful that Pound was merely describing flowers and tree branches in this poem.  It is more likely that the poet was writing figuratively and a figurative approach suggests that the petals reference refers to youth and vibrancy whereas the black bough reference refers to the natural aging process and an inevitable decay in physical strength and mental faculties.  It therefore seems to me that this part of the poem is issuing a warning of sorts to its readers.  The warning is that while human life is a great gift it is also, just like the poem itself, extraordinarily brief.  The beautiful petals bloom, wither and die.  Other human beings will take our places, as the apparitions reference notes, but our own lives need to be lived to the fullest before time takes its inevitable toll.

In conclusion, I have three basic responses to this poem.  First, it is a call to celebrate the opportunity to live.  Second, it is a warning to enjoy the gift of human life because it is of a limited duration.  Finally, the poets short poem may be a technique to reinforce the precious briefness of time.