iN a STaTioN oN THe MeTRo

At a first glance, not many people would consider Ezra Pound’s “In a Station on the Metro” a poem considering the fact that it contains only two lines. The poem does not have stanzas, let alone a meter. There seems to be no complexity what so ever. Because art is so abstract, there are no real qualifications of what makes a poem a poem. Now-a- days, one could slap the first twenty words they could think of together and call it a poem, regardless if there is a hidden meaning or not. Quite arguably, Pound’s two sentences can be considered a poem because it’s not only abstract but it contains vivid imagery and rhyme.
In the first line of the poem, the word “apparition” popped out at me because it’s not a common expression one uses to describe people. I imagine ghostly figures walking around with no specific destination or purpose except to walk. Like humans, apparitions also have distinct faces, but because they are just faces in the crowd they have a certain emptiness in their face. In other words, they lack personalities.
The word “petals” in the second line was the second image I saw. Petals are usually very vibrant in color, and easy to spot from far away, especially against “a wet, black bough.” Petals are also associated with flowers, which are one of natures many beauties in the world. So perhaps Pound was trying to describe the beauty or the essence of all the different passengers’ faces that he passes by everyday in the metro. Like a flower, everyone has their own unique look about that sets them apart from everyone else.
Even though the poem is only two lines, there is still a rhyme to it. There are similar sounds in the words crowd and bough, specifically the “ow” and “ou” parts. Although this poem is missing many other components that you would normally find in poetry such as a stanza or a meter does not make this any less of a poem. In fact, the simplicity and imagery of it is what makes it unique and abstract.