Ezra Pound’s 1913 poem, “In a Station of the Metro,” invites readers into the mind of a speaker at a local subway stop. Consisting of a mere twenty words spread across the poem’s title and two lines, “In a Station of the Metro” is a prime example of imagism. Imagism, a literary movement in early twentieth-century poetry, emphasizes the creation of concrete scenes through specific, thoughtful word choice which vividly describes essential aspects of an image. In “In a Station of the Metro,” the speaker uses the poem’s title and two precise images to construct a metaphor comparing the people the speaker sees in a subway station to flower petals on a large tree branch. In doing so, the speaker conveys both the beauty and the melancholic ephemerality of modern urban life.

Given how short the poem itself is, the poem’s title serves as a crucial element to contextualizing and understanding the metaphor in “In a Station of the Metro.” Without the title, readers would have no way of knowing the poem is set in a busy transit station. The existence of a metro system implies the speaker’s environment is urbanized enough to justify public transit. By starting the title with the preposition “in” — as opposed to “at” or “on” — the speaker reveals the following scene occurs in an enclosed, underground setting instead of an outdoor, above-ground metro station (Pound). In lieu of referring to one specific metro station by titling the poem “In the Station of the Metro,” the speaker opts for “In a Station of the Metro” (Pound). This choice allows readers to detach from the mindset that the speaker’s metaphor applies to one subway station in particular; readers may generalize the speaker’s comparison across any metro station. Moreover, the title’s lack of a specific city encourages readers to further abstract the speaker's metaphor. Instead of ending the title with “Paris Metro,” “London Underground” or “New York Subway,” the title merely concludes with “Metro” (Pound). This choice signifies that the poem’s metaphor is applicable to all urban life instead of a single city. 

In the first line of “In a Station of the Metro,” the speaker uses synecdoche and haunting word choice to present the image of people in motion at a busy subway station. The line begins by using the word “apparition” to describe the movement of metro station attendees (Pound 1). While the speaker uses “apparition” in this context to mean “appearance,” other definitions of the word are affiliated with ghosts and spirits (Pound 1). Thus, this word not only instills swiftness into the movements of station attendees (as they quickly emerge from and disappear into the crowd) but also adds an ethereal, eerie tone to the scene. The speaker then continues by saying “these faces” (Pound 1). Here, the word “faces” is a synecdoche (Pound 1). While the line refers to the motion of entire people, the speaker uses a part of their body — their face — to represent them. This device directs the attention of readers to the same area of the body which the speaker themself is focusing on. Additionally, the choice to include the word “these” adds a sense of immediacy to the poem; the speaker could have easily made the first line “The apparition of faces in the crowd,” but “The apparition of these faces in the crowd” places the speaker directly amidst others in the subway station (Pound 1). This word choice portrays the scene not in the abstract but as happening right in front of the speaker. The subsequent choice of the word “crowd” further conveys the sense of physical closeness the speaker feels to the other people in the station (Pound 1). For there to be enough people in the station to make a crowd, a sense of disorder and claustrophobia must be present. Taken together, the words in the poem’s first line paints a busy, ever-changing image with a level of spiritual importance. Notably, while the act of disappearing into a crowd at a metro station can strip people of their individual humanity, the speaker’s recognition of peoples’ faces (a unique, humanizing aspect) amidst the crowd instills individuality and empathy. 

In the second and final line of “In a Station of the Metro,” the speaker uses alliteration and natural imagery to portray the idea of beauty against an ugly background. The line begins with the word “petals” (Pound 2). These flower petals evoke ideas of loveliness and purity within readers. The speaker positions the petals against “a wet, black bough” (Pound 2). The petals — likely some shade of red or white and glistening from the moisture affecting the rest of the branch — stand in stark visual contrast to their comparatively grimy environment. Indeed, the line concludes with the alliteration of the “b” sound in “black bough” (Pound 2). This sound is stern and impactful, positioning the dark, sturdy branch in opposition with the gentle flower petals. The scale of each object is yet another visual difference between the petals and the bough. Despite being dwarfed by the size of the large tree branch, the petals nevertheless stand out visually due to their beauty.

By connecting the two images of people walking in a subway station and flower petals on a tree branch with a colon and the use of assonance, the speaker forms a metaphor comparing the two scenes. While the first line of “In a Station of the Metro” is positioned as happening directly in front of the speaker, the second line is presented as a scene in the abstract. This choice encourages readers to interpret the image of flower petals as a thought being envisioned in the mind of the speaker in the subway station. Moreover, by concluding the first line with a colon, the speaker invites readers to juxtapose the two images without unnecessarily increasing the word count through using words such as “are like.” The poem’s abruptness increases the metaphor’s focus, immediacy, and impact. The speaker’s use of assonance in the last word of each line — “crowd” and “bough” both share the “ow” vowel sound — further connects the two images (Pound 1-2).

The metaphor in “In a Station of the Metro” imparts on readers both the beauty and melancholic ephemerality of modern urban life. The individuals in the metro station — exactly like the flower petals on the tree branch — are portrayed as strikingly lovely against a grimy background. By making this comparison, the speaker conveys that urban life and the natural world (while often thought of as contradictory or opposing forces) can be seen as comparable; the beauty and organization found in the movement of urbanites is akin to the beauty and organization found in nature. Additionally, there is a layer of fleetingness to both images. It remains ambiguous whether the petals are growing naturally on the bough or if they are merely stuck to the bough momentarily due to the branch’s damp nature. Regardless, in either scenario, the branch will eventually dry, and the petals will fall off. This temporary aspect of the flower petals matches the temporary aspect of the faces in the subway crowd; while the petals and the faces are apparent at this moment, they will soon both disappear into the dark, dominating environment which envelops them. 

In his 1913 poem, “In a Station of the Metro,” Ezra Pound uses only twenty words to create a metaphor which compares the speaker’s perception of people walking in a metro station to flower petals on a damp tree branch. With metaphor, synecdoche, alliteration, assonance, and vivid word choice, the speaker communicates the beauty (both blissful and fleeting) inherent to modern, industrialized environments. The relevance and impact of Pound’s poetry over one hundred years after its publication is a testament to the piece’s ability to distill both the joyous appreciation and pensive sadness felt by urbanites around the globe.