In a Station of the Metro
central image in the
related to the subject the poet
How is the
poem
intends to present?
San Yao 伞瑶 307
A Quotation from Ezra Pound
“Three years ago in Paris I
got out of a "metro" train at
La Concorde, and saw
suddenly a beautiful face,
and then another and
another, and then a beautiful
child’s face, and then another
beautiful woman….A year
later I made the following
haiku（俳句）-like sentence: ---
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
I. What subjects does the poet intend to present?
1.Faces of women and
children (suddenly,
beautiful)
2. The crowd in the metro
station
II. What are the central images presented in
the poem?
Petals on a wet,
black bough
III. How are the subjects in reality related to
the images in the poem?
The subjects that the poet
intends to present are
related to the images in the
poem in five aspects:
1. Shapes
2. Colors
3. Feelings
4. Movements
5. Contrasts between each
subject/image
The apparition
of these faces
in the crowd.
Apparition
1. A ghostly figure; a specter.
幽灵；幻影
2. A sudden or unusual sight.
突然景象，特异景象
3. The act of appearing;
appearance.
出现，显形：出现的行为；露面
Faces in the crowd appear
suddenly like the ghostly
phantom（幻影）
Apparition
1. Faces: detached from the
crowd—a sharp contrast
2. Movement of the faces:
flash, suddenly
3. Subject: mystified—from
reality to imagination
A wet, black bough
Crowd in the
long, dark, wet
metro station
 Shape: long, thick
 Color: black, dark
 Feeling: wet, cold
 Movement: still, dull（呆滞的）
Petals
 shape: round, oval or pointed
 color: bright (pink, white, yellow,
etc)
 feeling: warm
 movement: flickering (摇曳，忽
隐忽现) in the breeze
（daffodils “fluttering and dancing
in the breeze）
apparition
Lovely faces of women and
children flashing in the dark
and wet metro station
Central images VS
Subjects in the real world
 Petals and bough: metaphorical
counterparts
 A sharp contrast sympathizes with the
one in the first picture.
III. What are the effects of such connections?
1. From present faces to remembered petals: time
limits
From a metro station to a bough: space limits
--From reality to an imaginative world
2. Vagueness between subjects being described and
images in the poem– broadens the imagination–
“real” to the mind
3. Contrast and passion: reinforced
Thank You!