In the Comments section below, please post a response of at least one full paragraph (min. 5 sentences). Your assignment is twofold: 1) you are to demonstrate a clear understanding of the text by attempting to summarize the text's argument as precisely as possible, and 2) you are to use your comment to ask the text (or ask your peers) at least one thoughtful question.
Remember: your comment can respond directly to other students' posts on this text. The goal of this forum is to offer an opportunity for intelligent dialogue related to the works we are studying in class. Respectful debate is always welcome.
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
ReplyDeletePetals on a wet, black bough."
When examining this work, like other poems, it is important to consider the argument before moving on to examine the other elements. This poem doesnt seem to have a clear argument to me. I think that it is a hidden argument at best. It seems to say that the passengers in the metro station are only appearances (apparitions) of things that will soon move on or pass away, like petals on a branch. Faces are being compared to petals. My question, is is this really an argument, and who is the audience?
In looking at this poem i wanted to be clear of the words apparition and bough. Apparition meant faces like that of a ghost and bough meant trees. Mike, in answer to your question, i don't think the author actually did mean a specific audience when he wrote this. I think he was talking about a group of people who's faces were hard to read and undefined as when petals get wet they get blurry. Why would the author choose to write this though? Is there a point to this poem?
ReplyDeleteI think that the title of this poem plays a large role in understanding this poem. In a Station of the Metro is the setting where the story takes place. The author encounters the faces in the crowd at the metro and compares them to petals on a wet black bough. Does this mean that she thinks that faces stand out in a metro just like flowers stand out on a wet branch? If so, Why?
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteIf you think about petals and flowers they are very colorful and people are too. So maybe while looking around the "Station of the Metro" she saw how the faces bore a likeness to flower petals. Or maybe we're looking to inside the box. Maybe shes saying how individually we aren't much but together we're like a palette of colors. And we all compliment each other. But does this mean the rain on the petals is the tears on the faces??? So are they crying..???
I think that maybe this poem is being taken the wrong way. I dont know how many times you look at branches with petals and think that the petals stand out, but i dont do that generally. I also dont think that the people i see when i go on a metro stand out, escpecially in a crowd. I think the poet is more referring to the people as all blending in and become one. This would go sort of along wiht hillys idea that the faces are blurry because there in a crowd. Maybe the author is tlaking about how unspecial people are because when were in a crowd we dont stand out, we just blend in?
ReplyDeleteI think this poem might just be saying that the poet thinks that the city is part of nature. In the previous poem A Pact he says he detests Walt Whitman but that he has grown old and seems to have changed his mind. Walt Whitman believed that the city was pure nature, so it seems to me that the poem is taking place in a station of a metro in the middle of a city. I think the "apparition of faces" could just mean that these faces to him are unfamiliar yet, they represent nature or "petals on a wet, black bough." I think that maybe Pound is just agreeing with Whitman in that he believes that the city and people are pure nature. My question is why would the branch be black because black usually means unatural like the black door in the Scarlett Letter?
ReplyDeleteSo first I have to thank Mike Lentz for defining the words "apparition" and "bough" for me, because until discovering the meaning of those words I had no clue what so ever what the poem was even talking about. I like how Ezra Pound compares faces to petals of a flower. It's a clear and understandable metaphor. Even when a person wears a flower costume, their head goes in the middle; surrounded by the petals. So thank you Ezra for being clear and not confusing me with a comparison like "The human brain is like a rink mesh bag full of baby toes." When you're at a train station, or anywhere for that matter, that is really packed with the hustle and bustle of busy people, the faces of those passing you by tend to bland together and leave a dull shadowy image in your memory. I feel like if you were to go for a walk just after it has rained your recollection of the flowers and trees would leave the same kind of imprint. Now all I want to know is who cares? I mean no offense Ezra Pound, but what's the point of this poem? Is there even a point?
ReplyDeleteRachel I think the point of this poem is the fact that people are as numerous as leaves on a branch and we dont take time to know them. We just pass by without any thought to who that person is or what they are like. I think the title of this poem is important because train stations are busy and you see many people there. I think it could be a metaphor for our lives. People come and go, but we dont take time to care. My question is, would this poem make sense if it was in a different location?
ReplyDeleteRachel, personally I think every poem must have a point. As a poet, I would never write something down without have any emotion behind it whatsoever. If I did that then that moment would not be memorable and it would be a waste of paper. I would not write it down or get it published. I think that he just wanted to capture a moment in time when he was at the metro. Poets write things down in order to remember a moment and/or feeling. The poem is just about him seeing faces blur due to the speed of them passing by. If every poem has some emotion behind it then, what is the emotion behind this one? Is it apathetic?
ReplyDeleteI like Peter's point in saying that we pass by new faces everyday and don't even bother to take the time to get to know them. There are many flowers and leaves on a branch, but often times we do not stop and admire it for it's beauty. Picking a metro station was wise in my opinion because everyone at one point in life goes to a metro station and sees all the people there. To answer Peter's question, I think this poem could make sense in any crowded/busy senario where we don't take time to acknowledge and what they do and the effort they contribute.
ReplyDeleteUntil we talked about this poem in class I felt as if I did not really understand it. Now, though, after Dr. Camacho explained what Pound was trying to do, it makes sense. At first I believed that Pound was just trying to communicate the hustle and bustle of the metro station to the reader. As it turns out, Pound was skillfully translating the instant an idea clicks in someone's mind into words. I do, however, wonder what the other lines were that he cut, and why he chose these specific two lines for the poem.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that Pound contrasts two very different things in this poem. He describes the faces in the crowd as having an apparition-like appearance, and relates that to petals. An apparition evokes a mystical and supernatural feeling; something that cannot be explained, and has an eerie feeling that goes along with it. Petals are quite the opposite: they are delicate, feminine, and beautiful. Perhaps Pound was translating his perception of beauty in this poem. In the midst of ugliness or darkness, there can always be beauty. Does the time period in which Pound wrote this poem, have anything to do with what he was trying to get across?
ReplyDeleteMolly
In such a short poem as this, every single word is extremely important. The word apparition can mean something that is ghostly or becoming visible. The faces of people in a crowd are not particularly noticeable to us. They are just faces of people passing by. However, even though they may not be noticeable to us, each person has something very beautiful and unique about them. This is like the petals. When on a wet, black bough, they are fairly transparent and unnoticeable. However, they also have a beauty and uniqueness to them. Something that may go by unnoticed by many actually has a much deeper meaning or beauty that we often overlook. Is this related to industrialization and the speed at which people began to overlook the small, beautiful things in life?
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems that shorter poems seem to be more rich and meaningful with their words. As said in class, I believe that the shortness of this poem represents that split second when a brilliant idea or revelation hits someone. I also like Peter's point about not really seeing faces that pass us by, but instead of us not caring, I see it as possibly a reflection on how people just flow through life with no real direction or meaning. It is easy for one to stick to what he is doing and not mind others, rather than taking time to be perceptive. By even watching the short moment of someone's life, you can learn a lot about them. Are we too busy to pay attention to "extraneous" things outside our realm of comfort, or are we just to stuck on ourselves to notice others?
ReplyDeleteSo what would be the authors thesis statement on this poem? I am also working on this poem for English and this blog has helped me understand this a lot. I need to make a thesis that has a subject, verb, and point. Cant be a summary and must be argumentative. I think the subject is people but then from there I don't know how to create a thesis without making it a summary.
ReplyDeletehe is in a metro where he was with his girl but the girl must go and he has to stay. people for him are strangers like ghost. he was only focusing on the petals which are wet meaning, the petal is the girl and wet because he is crying.. black bough because he feels sorrow and loneliness..
ReplyDelete