In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound
In a Station of the Metro
Ezra PoundThe apparition of these faces in the crowd :
Petals on a wet, black bough .
MARGINALIA
Searching for an old book by Ezra Pound, the one with his earlier, shorter works. I think I lent it to an old love once, from way back.
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A quick search in my bookshelf reveals that it’s one of the many things I lost to a relationship gone awry. Why why why.
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Pound was one of the many reasons why I fell in love with poetry. A man who likes to read is one of the many reasons why I fall in love.
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When Pound got off the train that day at La Concorde, he saw all these beautiful faces. He wrote a thirty-line poem. Destroyed it. Six months later, he wrote another one. Wasn’t satisfied by it. A year later: this poem.
It changed my life.
ABOUT EZRA POUND
Ezra Pound is widely considered one of the most influential and most difficult poets of the 20th century; his contributions to Modernist poetry are enormous. He was an early champion of a number of avant-garde and Modernist poets, developed important channels of intellectual and aesthetic exchange between the United States and Europe, and contributed to important literary movements. Pound’s published books include A lume spento (1908), Exultations (1909), Personae (1909), Provenca… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: epiphany • urbanity • imagism • Or browse the index
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Sandy
The poem never loses its power no matter how many times you’ve read it. I idolized Pound and Williams when I was starting out as a writer. Have you read Pound’s translation of Li Po’s works?
madhu
one of my favorite poems!