Chapter 5
Modernism (1)
The 1920s · Imagism
Pound
Contents
 Historical
context
 Imagism (a literary term)
 Understanding and analysis of In
a Station of the Metro by Pound
Assignment
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Define the term Imagism
List the three principles of Imagism by Pound
What are the themes of In a Station of Metro? Take
example to show the themes from the poem.
What kind of form and meter does Pound employ in
writing In a Station of Metro? What is its English form?
What are the two images of In a Station of Metro?
Answer the two questions on page 188 from the
Selected Readings.
Historical context
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The WWI had a great impact on this period
The society was going on a change.
Darwin’s theories of evaluation were
intensified with the development of science
and technology
People were starting to see the world
differently, particularly artists and thinkers
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The WWI had a great impact on this period
*The WWI proved tremendously profitable to
America. The country made a great deal of money in
the war and became, as a whole, a lot richer, so here
came the economic boom.
*People became a sudden jump in technology
Automobiles and radios appeared, the movie revolution
and the music, notably the jazz , available to everyone
now.
*The urban had badly enlarged.
People crowded into cities.
*A new type of industrial economy developed.
Mass production, mass consumption, and mass leisure
became essential.
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The society was going on a change.
* Old moral codes were breaking down. Old
modes of perception were questioned.
*Women appeared on social scene. They
wanted the same rights and salaries as men did.
*After the war there was a letdown because
nothing had changed. The heroism, patriotism
and the zeal for democracy and idealism that
drove people to war now proved false and
tasteless. People got disillusioned.
*There was a high degree of intolerance
in America then. Many Americans could
not tolerate forms of radicalism and
assertions of social and religious rights.
Newer immigrants were discriminated.
*The Prohibition of alcohol angered
popular taste. Bootleggers moved in to
reap huge profits from illegal sales.
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Darwin’s theories of evaluation were
intensified with the development of
science and technology. God was
claimed dead. People lost faith without
which one could no longer keep his feeling
and thought whole, and without which
one no longer felt secure and happy. Now
people found themselves living in a
spiritual waste land as T.S Eliot suggests in
his epoch poem.
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People were starting to see the world
differently, particularly artists and
thinkers. The three thinkers who most
shaped the mind-set of the early twentieth
century were Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl
Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Their writings
changed the intellectual climate in the early
twentieth century. Artists and writers could
no longer take for granted the structures
and values that people used to rely on.
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In American literature a whole new
generation of younger writers, People
were starting to see the world differently,
particularly artists and thinkers.
Impressionism appeared with Dadaism and
Expressionism. Symbolism and surrealism
became stylish and popular. High
Modernism began to dominate the world
of literature and art. (There are so many
writers listed in textbook from p157-page
158)
Imagism
 Imagism
(definition)
 Three phases of the movement
 The features of Imagism
The new age demanded a proper literary
expression. Imagism movement appeared to
meet the need of expressing the temper of the
age.
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Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century
Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of
imagery, and clear, sharp language, which first
started in London in 1908. The Imagists rejected
the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much
Romantic and Victorian poetry. This was in
contrast to their contemporaries, the Georgian
poets, who were by and large content to work
within that tradition. The Imagist movement
included English and American poets in the early
twentieth century who wrote free verse and were
devoted to "clarity of expression through the use
of precise visual images."
 Three
phases of the movement
*It first began in London in the years
1908-1909, initiated by a young
Englishman, T.E Hulm, of which the
spirit was the theorized poetic technique by
Hulm of “absolutely accurate presentation
and no verbiage”.
*The second phase was the period of some
three years (1912-1914) when Ezra Pound took
over and championed the new poetry.
Pound defined the three principles of Imagist
poetry as:
① Direct treatment of the "thing," whether
subjective or objective.
② To use absolutely no word that does not
contribute to the presentation.
③ As regarding rhythm: to compose in
sequence of the musical phrase, not in
sequence of the metronome.
*The third period (1914-1917) Amy
Lowell was in the leading place.
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The features of Imagism
*Common speech is used, employing always
the exact word, not the nearly exact;
*Cliché is to be avoided;
*New rhythms are created as the expression
of a new mood;
*There is absolute freedom in choice of
subject;
*Images are to be concrete, firm and definite
in their pictures, even harsh in outline;
*Concentration
is to be striven for as
the essence of poetry;
*The poetry should suggest rather than
offer complete statements.
*In American literary history, Imagism
was only a transient phase of no longer
than a decade. But it has had a great
influence on later writers.
Understanding and
analysis of In a Station of
the Metro by Pound
In a station of the metro
Contents
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Introduction
Brief Summary
Line-By-Line understanding
Themes
Literary devices (technique)
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Introduction
This is the only Ezra Pound poem that many
people will read in their lives. Why? Because it’s
two lines long. However, it’s not just that the
poem is so short – it’s also that Pound’s other;
"famous" poems are so darned long. His Cantos,
for example, are so long that he couldn’t finish
them. In the Station of the Metro, however, is an
exercise in brevity (a fancy word for "shortness").
Pound wrote it after having a spiritual experience
in a Paris metro (subway) station.
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In 1916, Pound wrote about the process of writing the
poem (Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, 1916). Apparently, he
originally thought he could best capture his vision in a
painting. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a painter. Kind of a
problem. So he wrote a 30-line poem, which he didn’t
like. He pitched the long version in the waste bin. Six
months later, he wrote a shorter poem, but didn’t like
that one either and threw it away. Finally, a full year
after the experience, he had been reading short
Japanese poems called haikus, and he figured he would
try to adapt this form to his vision in the metro. The
result, which was published in 1913, is one the most
famous, influential, and haunting works in modern
poetry.
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Brief Summary
A man sees a bunch of faces in the
subway and thinks they look like flowers
on a tree branch.
Line-By-Line understanding
Line 1
 The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
*The poet is watching faces appear in a crowded
metro (subway) station.
(One wouldn’t know it only from reading the
poem, but when one is in Paris, which means that
everyone looks really nice. The beautiful French
girls).
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*The poet is trying to get us to see things from his
perspective, and the word "apparition" suggests that
the faces are becoming visible to him very suddenly
and probably disappearing just as fast (answer to
question 1 on p188). They almost look like ghosts. If
ever been in a crowded subway, then one is probably
familiar with this phenomenon.
*By calling them "these faces," he puts the reader right
there in the metro station, as if he were pointing his
finger and saying, "Look!"
*The station must be pretty full, because there is a
“crowd.”
Line 2
Petals on a wet, black bough.
*Although he doesn’t say so, the words "looks
like" are implicit at the start of this line. The
faces in the crowd "look like" flower petals on a
"wet, black bough."
*A "bough" is a big tree branch.
*When is a tree branch wet and black? Probably at
night, after the rain. A Paris subway, on the other
hand, is always wet and black.
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*Now, we’re going out on a limb here (pun!), but
he may be seeing the faces reflected in a puddle
over black asphalt. Or it could just be a more
general sense of wetness. At any rate, the faces
in the subway are being compared to flowers on
a tree branch. (answer to question 2 on p188)
*Another fact to keep in mind is that Japan is
famous for its beautiful flowering trees, and
considering that this poem is written in
Japanese haiku style . . . well, heck, he might just
be thinking of a Japanese tree.
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Note: A haiku in English typically has
seventeen syllables because it is modeled after
the Japanese version. However, because the
Japanese language is so different from English,
seventeen syllables in Japanese allows for less
words and, thus, an even shorter poem!
A traditional haiku contains a word called a kigo
that hints at the season of the year. The kigo of
"In a Station of the Metro" is "petals" – it must
be spring, because flowers are in bloom.
Themes
*Versions of Reality
*Man and the Natural World
*Modernization
*The Supernatural
*Versions of Reality
The poem blends two images into one. In
the process, it seems to downplay the
reality of everyday life as an "apparition,"
while the spiritual life of memory and the
imagination is heightened. Pound thought
that a great image could reveal the "higher"
reality of something that already seems real
to us, like people getting on a subway.
#"Apparition" (line 1)
*Thought: The word "apparition" often
refers to the sudden and unexpected
appearance of something spooky and
supernatural, like a ghost or a phantom.
Pound doesn’t directly call the faces
"apparitions"; he only uses the word to
describe the way they seem to come and go
in a flash. But the word makes the faces
seem like ghosts from some other realm.
# "Petals
on a wet, black bough" (line 2)
Thought: Are the faces on the subway
even faces at all? Maybe not. Pound uses
the break between the first and second
lines to create confusion over two levels
of reality – the reality of everyday things
and the reality of spiritual visions. It may
be that the faces really are petals, at least
to this particular observer.
*Man and the Natural World
In the poem, people and nature literally
become one as the faces in the subway
become flowers on a tree. The analogy
between faces and flowers is not just a
simile, which would say that one thing is
"like" another. Rather, it is metaphor: the
poem implies that the faces are petals on a
tree.
#"Faces in the Crowd" (line 1)
Thought: The first line depicts as
unnatural a setting as possible – a
crowded subway station. Nowadays,
people go on hiking and camping trips to
get away from things like the subway. The
people in the subway don’t even seem to
have bodies; they are just anonymous
"faces."
#"Petals on a wet, black bough." (line 2)
Thought: The second line fuses the image of
the chaotic and stressful world of man to a
peaceful and intense vision of a flowering tree.
The first line is kind of vague and imprecise, but
the second line puts the reader right there with
nature. It has simple words that appeal to the
senses, like "petals," "wet," and "black." These
words even sound tangible, like one could reach
out and touch them.
*Modernization
If you were a person living in Paris near the
beginning of the 20th century, there would be a
lot of reasons to be afraid of the metro. The
crowd of anonymous strangers pushing past one
another, blank stares, the dirty wet ground. This
poem, though, presents the new technology as
the scene of a mystical experience, in which the
poet and his readers are reminded of the serenity
and calm of a Japanese garden.
#"In a Station of the Metro" (title)
Thought: The title is really part of the poem. Without
the title, it would be impossible to know where the
poem takes place. The title contains a reference to a
symbol of modern technology, the metro. On the other
hand, we don’t find this reference anywhere else in the
poem. In this way, technology is "excluded" from the
vision of the poem itself. The poem is not really about
modernization; or, at least, not about modernization as
most writers have portrayed it – as a bleak, scary force
that turns people into workaholic zombies. The poem
shows how the imagination proves to be the more
powerful force when faced with the technologies of
modern life.
* The Supernatural
One of the central mysteries of the poem is,
why are the faces the poets sees an "apparition"?
This word usually refers to ghosts or supernatural
spirits. Pound seems to be comparing the
beautiful strangers in the subway to ghosts who
appear suddenly and then disappear from your
life just as fast. You catch a glimpse and that’s it.
Plus, the subway is underground, which could
make a reader think of epics like the Aeneid, the
Odyssey, and the Inferno, which all include journeys
to the Underworld.
#"Apparition" (line 1)
Thought: "Apparition" has traditionally been
used to describe ghosts or phantoms, but it can
also just refer to a sudden appearance of any
kind. Now you see it, now you don’t. Pound
takes advantage of these two uses of the word to
confuse the reader into thinking that the faces in
the subway might be ghost-like. J.K. Rowling
does the same thing in the Harry Potter series by
saying that characters can "Apparate."
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Literary devices (technique)
*Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
*Form and Meter
*Speaker Point of View
* the title
* Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
#The Crowd of Faces
Line 1: The entire poem is basically a single
metaphor. If you were ever confused about the
difference between a metaphor and a simile, and
the difference it can make to use one instead of
the other, this is a great poem to look at. Pound
could have said that the faces "look like" flower
petals, which would have produced a simile. By
leaving this expression out, the poem reads as if it
were saying that the faces are petals. A metaphor.
The two images are fused into one.
#The Bough
Line 2: The success of the comparison between
the human faces and the flower petals depends
upon making the second image seem very lifelike. So Pound uses some intense natural imagery
to describe the "wet, black bough" to which the
petals are attached. This image connects to our
sense of sight and touch, so the reader feels like
he or she could reach out and pluck the faces out
of the scene like a flower from a tree. He also
uses some alliteration with "black" and "bough,"
as if the words on the page and the images in our
head were fusing together at the same time
*Form and Meter
#Haiku
The poem is a variation on the Japanese form of
the haiku, a very short poem divided into three
sections with a certain number of syllables in
each section. In English, haikus are often
written as three-line poems. The first line has
five syllables, the second seven, and the third
five again. The haiku is really short, but it
packs a big punch.
It’s hard to achieve the same effect when
writing in a language other than Japanese,
which is probably why Pound doesn’t follow
strict rules in creating this short poem. For
example, Pound’s poem has two long lines
instead of three short ones. So, how can it
tell that the poem is a haiku? For one thing,
the Japanese version often features a
contrast between two events or images;
Pound’s poem clearly contrasts the two
images of the faces in the crowd and the
petals on the bough. The poem attempts to
fuse these images into one. Second, the
Japanese haiku usually has a word that lets
the reader know the season of year. It’s not
super-obvious, but Pound’s poem also has a
word ("petals") to indicate the season –
springtime – in which it takes place.
*Speaker Point of View
Our speaker is more like a person who
seems maddeningly peaceful and meditative
while riding the public bus or subway. He's
got his eyes closed, and takes deep, cleansing
breaths. His head sways gently back and
forth.
His secret is that he reads a lot of Asian
spiritual poetry, which has given him an
intense love for the rhythms of nature.
When we readers see a bunch of faces
crammed in a station, he sees beautiful
petals. He sees the reality behind the reality.
He has an intense imagination and the
patience to think about a single image for a
long time until he figures out exactly what it
means.
What's more amazing is that he can keep
his cool while living in the big city. He
doesn't have to go out into the forest or
the countryside to find natural beauty. He
sees it all around him. Even when the
crowd jostles him around, he never gets
angry or frustrated. Whatever he's having
for breakfast, we want some.
*About the title
Considering that the title is half as long as
the entire poem, we might as well put it
under the microscope, as if it were part of
the poem.
The title begins with a preposition: "In."
This is the first sign that the poet means to
put the reader, literally, "in" his shoes. The
reader is going to be down there, in the
metro, seeing what he sees.
In a poem this short, every word is
important, even articles like "a" and "the."
The poem takes place in "a" station, but the
poet isn’t going to tell us which one. (In fact,
it was the station called "La Concorde," but
Pound obviously didn’t feel that giving the
name would add anything to the atmosphere
of the poem.) It’s meant to be vague;
the situation is so common that it could be
any station. But it can’t be any metro.
There’s only one metro, "the" metro.
Pound wants us to think like a Parisian, so
we can’t be confusing this metro with, say,
the New York Subway or the London
Underground.
Pound could have just called the poem, "In a
metro station," but he chose to make the title
longer. There are lots of reasons he could have
done this – it sounds really cool, for example –
but another reason might be to highlight the
word "station." A "station" is a stopping-place, a
place where things stand still. The poem itself
is a kind of station, because it freezes all the
bustle of the metro and the crowd into one
lasting image. So the title isn’t just referring to a
place where subway trains stop; it’s also talking
about how the poem works.
(Finally, there are the "Stations of the
Cross" from Christianity, which are the
prayers said to remember the stages of
Christ’s journey carrying the cross on the
way to his crucifixion. Not to say that the
metro is a place where people are crucified
(we should hope not), but only that the
experience described in the poem might
have religious overtones. )