Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” Essay

Ezra whip first produce this poem in 1913, at a time when writers of verse line were trying to break from the tralatitious pentameters associated with their craft. This piece is an excellent example of Imagism, in which poets, instead of describing an image in detail , tried to use a minimal amount of words, and waken an image by use of a well-written phrase. Pound uses haiku style of poetry in this piece which contains precisely 14 words- a stark melody to the 20-30 lines from previous era of Victorianism.Pound once explained that he did not beseech the heart of the poem to be in the first or blurb line- but to be the thought process that connects them. While this is a ideal used in Imagism, it is more like the latter form he embraced- Vorticism. This categorization comes from the endeavor of the author to treat the poem as a piece of graphic art. Upon examination of the poem itself, it is interesting to note that no verbs are used in the poem, yet it runs a sense of move ment.His excerption of the word apparition automatically makes the reader conjure images of mysticism and spirits, consequently he begins his contrasts between the real and the unreal the beautiful and the ugly the mundane and the exotic. His contrast of nature versus man-made and the quick transition he makes is rattling typical of the Japanese haiku style. Interestingly he uses petals instead of flowers, giving it a softer, more feminine quality thus the dark masculinity of the nasty bough is doubled.The comparison of these two is simultaneous with what the poet has seen on the railway platform- opposites that not only are extremes but that compliment each other. There is continued reflect among scholars as to the true meaning of this poem and what Pound intended to convey when he wrote it. Nevertheless, they all have to agree that he did what he execute out to do- transcend traditional form and make an eye-opening statement to his readers.ReferencesPounds In A Station of th e Metro A textual Note. English Language Notes 8. 4 (June 1971). retrieved on June 16, 2009, from http//www. english. illinois. edu/ Maps/poets/m_r/pound/metro. htm Hishikawa, Eiichi Ezra Pound published by Kobe Univesity April 2004 retrieved on June 16, 2009 from http//www. lit. kobe-u. ac. jp/hishika/pound. htm