"In a Station of the Metro" ~Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound speaks of a metro in this short poem.

By "metro" Pound means the public transportation train, which often have enclosed, underground stops.  It seems as though Pound is implying that this metro station is wet from rain, though he does not describe a specific location.

The poem communicates feelings of awe, describing that there are people passing within this metro station that show loneliness and fatigue, associated with the typical hustle and bustle of commuting at the metro station.  The words that contribute to these feelings are "apparition," "faces," and "black."

The poem is trying to describe what the poet is observing while standing in the metro station because it is something that he has not experienced before.  Pound is saying that public transportation typically consists of many different faces, thrown into a grungy location, each person purely focused on where they are going next.  However, he implies with this poem that what he is viewing in this particular situation is a group of commuters that show faces endow a light amidst a plain, black metro. He is implying that humanity today is too concerned with their busy lifestyles than taking time to absorb their surroundings as he is.


Tigertown
The CAT bus approaches weary students;
Waiting anxiously on the curb.
The sun is setting;
Their minds finally drifting away from a day's learning.