In a Station of the Metro - wikipedia In a Station of the Metro `` In A Station of the Metro '' is an Imagist poem by Ezra Pound published in 1913 in the literary magazine Poetry. In the poem, Pound describes a moment in the underground metro station in Paris in 1912 ; Pound suggested that the faces of the individuals in the metro were best put into a poem not with a description but with an `` equation ''. Because of the treatment of the subject 's appearance by way of the poem 's own visuality, it is considered a quintessential Imagist text. The poem was reprinted in Pound 's collection Lustra in 1917, and again in the 1926 anthology Personae : The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound, which compiled his early pre-Hugh Selwyn Mauberley works. Contents 1 The poem 2 Analysis 3 References 4 See also 5 Sources 6 External links The poem In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd ; Petals on a wet, black bough. `` '' The poem contains only fourteen words ( without a verb therein, a good example of the Verbless Poetry form ). Pound was influential in the creation of Imagist poetry until he left the movement to embrace Vorticism in 1914. Pound, though briefly, embraced Imagism stating that it was an important step away from the verbose style of Victorian literature and suggested that it `` is the sort of American stuff I can show here in Paris without its being ridiculed ''. `` In a Station of the Metro '' is an early work of Modernist poetry as it attempts to `` break from the pentameter '', incorporates the use of visual spacing as a poetic device, and does not contain any verbs. Analysis This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2009 ) The poem was first published in 1913 and is considered one of the leading poems of the Imagist tradition. Pound 's process of deletion from thirty lines to only fourteen words typifies Imagism 's focus on economy of language, precision of imagery and experimenting with non-traditional verse forms. The poem is Pound 's written equivalent for the moment of revelation and intense emotion he felt at the Metro at La Concorde, Paris. The poem is essentially a set of images that have unexpected likeness and convey the rare emotion that Pound was experiencing at that time. Arguably the heart of the poem is not the first line, nor the second, but the mental process that links the two together. `` In a poem of this sort, '' as Pound explained, `` one is trying to record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and subjective. '' By linking human faces, a synecdoche for people themselves, with petals on a damp bough, the poet calls attention to both the elegance and beauty of human life, as well as its transience. A dark, wet bough implies that it has just rained, and the petals stuck to the bough were shortly before attached to flowers from the tree. They may still be living, but they will not be for long. In this way, Pound calls attention to human mortality as a whole - we are all dying. The word `` apparition '' is considered crucial as it implies both presence and absence -- and thus transience as mentioned previously. It gives human life a spiritual, mystical significance, but one that we can never be sure of. The plosive word `` Petals '' conjures ideas of delicate, feminine beauty which contrasts with the bleakness of the `` wet, black bough ''. What the poem signifies is questionable ; many critics argue that it deliberately transcends traditional form and therefore its meaning is solely found in its technique as opposed to in its content. Additionally, some have interpreted the poem to be a Memento Mori. However when Pound had the inspiration to write this poem few of these considerations came into view. He simply wished to translate his perception of beauty in the midst of ugliness into a single, perfect image in written form. It is also worth noting that the number of words in the poem ( fourteen ) is the same as the number of lines in a sonnet. The words are distributed with eight in the first line and six in the second, mirroring the octet - sestet form of the Italian ( or Petrarchan ) sonnet. Pound may have been inspired by this ukiyo - e print he saw in the British Library. Woman Admiring Plum Blossoms at Night, Suzuki Harunobu, 18th century Like other modernist artists of the period, Pound found inspiration in Japanese art, but the tendency was to re-make and to meld cultural styles rather than to copy directly or slavishly. He may have been inspired by a Suzuki Harunobu print he almost certainly saw in the British Library ( Richard Aldington mentions the specific prints he matched to verse ), and probably attempted to write haiku - like verse during this period. References Jump up ^ Axelrod, Steven Gould and Camille Roman, Thomas J. Travisano. The New Anthology of American Poetry : Traditions and Revolutions, Beginnings to 1900. Rutgers University Press ( 2003 ) p. 663 ^ Jump up to : Barbarese, J.T. `` Ezra Pound 's Imagist Aesthetics : Lustra to Mauberley '' The Columbia history of American poetryColumbia University Press ( 1993 ) pp. 307 - 308 Jump up ^ Hirsch, Edward ' A Poet 's Glossary ' Houghton Mifflin, 2014 Jump up ^ Ayers, David. Modernsim : A Short Introduction. Blackwell ( 2004 ) p. 2 Jump up ^ http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pound/metro.htm Jump up ^ Pound ( 1916 ) Gaudier - Brzeska, 103. https://archive.org/details/gaudierbrzeska00pounrich Jump up ^ Video of a lecture discussing the importance of Japanese culture to Pound 's early poetry, London University School of Advanced Study, March 2012. Wall Street journal, Jan 7 - 8, 2017 Page C14 review by Willard Spiegelman See also Verbless Poetry Sources Ezra Pound `` Vorticism '', in The Fortnightly Review, Sept. 1, 1914 The Cat Empire, `` The Crowd '', Nov / Dec, 2004 External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : In a Station of the Metro Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois Ezra Pound Poems A Lume Spento Ballad of the Goodly Fere Cathay Hugh Selwyn Mauberley In a Station of the Metro Ripostes The Cantos Other work ABC of Reading ( Parable of the Sunfish ) The Spirit of Romance Le Testament de Villon Family Dorothy Shakespear ( wife ) Omar Pound ( son ) Mary de Rachewiltz ( daughter ) Thaddeus C. Pound ( grandfather ) Olga Rudge William Wadsworth Miscellaneous Ezra Pound 's Three Kinds of Poetry List of cultural references in The Cantos Des Imagistes Brunnenburg Ideogrammic method Visits to St. Elizabeths The Pound Era A ZBC of Ezra Pound Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=In_a_Station_of_the_Metro&oldid=763825285 '' Categories : American poems 1913 poems Works by Ezra Pound Works originally published in Poetry ( magazine ) Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from May 2009 All articles needing additional references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 5 February 2017, at 12 : 29. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote in a station of the metro
Answer: Ezra Pound