Metro Station of Ambiguity

“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound is an extremely short yet ambiguous and having very deep significance. It has only two lines, making it just a single couplet, yet it can be interpreted very differently depending on how you look at it. On the subject of modernity it can be interpreted as both pro-modernity and anti-modernity. To show this I’ll start with the pro-modernity side of the poem.

The poem begins by saying “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;” which is a rather interesting wording. The word apparition in a pro-modernity sense could simply mean the appearance, but I find the faces more interesting still. If one thinks about technology stealing the soul then, one might expect the people to appear as simple faceless drones. However their faces are specifically mentioned. In this sense, it gives the feeling that while technology brings change that we are all still unique, as in most cases our faces are. The second line then reads “Petals on a wet, black bough.” The imagery here is from nature this time. Flowers are usually a symbol of beauty and nature and in this context can be interpreted as showing that technology is a part of life. The adjective wet is also interesting, as a lot of rain occurs in the spring, the season when nature grows and develops. In this way the poem can be said to be very pro-modern.

On the other hand, the poem can also be said to be very anti-modernity. The first line contains the word apparition, which can be interpreted as a phantom or ghost-like thing. In a sense saying that technology is causing peoples spirits to fade into nothingness. Also the word crowd is used, which shows the negative side in that one can lose themselves very easily in a crowd and be completely alone. In the second line it talks about it being wet and having the petals on a black bough. Rain is often associated with sadness as are flowers at times. These could give off the idea of a funeral and death in this sense, more specifically the death of beauty and nature as modernity spreads. So depending how you look at the poem it can be taken to mean very opposing things. Pound’s poem can achieve this very high level of ambiguity mainly due to its lack of further details.

Pic 1- link here
Pic 2- link here