"In a Station of the Metro

Erza Pound's poem, "In a Station of the Metro", can be interpreted in two different manners. Although the poem is not so substantial and actually quite brief, one can view the arguments in the poem in favor of supporting a shift to modernism, as well as against such a shift. 

Pound's poem can be interpreted as an anti-modernity poem based on several key points. In the first line she refers to the "apparition" of "faces in the crowd". An apparition is usually used to refer to a ghost like figure or supernatural appearance of something. Ghosts and the supernatural are often viewed as evil and dark figures and events that have an underlying agenda that will ultimately bring about destruction, in some way or another, to those around them. In Pound's poem, the metro is depicted as the scene of the apparition, the site of evil. The "faces in the crowd" are the things that are actually appearing and are paralleled to "Petals on a wet, black bough". The "faces" are the "petals" where as the metro station is the "wet, black bough". By comparing the "faces" to the "petals", Pound is saying that the only good things in the station are the faces because petals are usually interpreted as soft and fragile, used as a token of love. The metro station is depicted by the "wet, black bough" because she believes that it is taking away from nature's true beauty by having such wonderful faces, "petals", in such an urbanized area. "Black bough" can also be a metaphor for all of the pollution that comes from an urbanized way of living as well as all the dirty crime and corruption that a city faces everyday. From this we can conclude that the argument of anti-modernity is depicting the negative effect on nature's beauty that urbanization can cause as well as the negative effect it can have on society. 

On the other hand, there is evidence in this poem to argue that it is pro-modernity as well. Metros were busy places where many people passed through, they were a symbol of a growing population helped along by industrialization and urbanization. The "faces" can once again be compared to petals, beautiful, full of life, and  the part of the being that everyone pays attention to. The fact that the "faces" are "apparitions" again suggest something supernatural is involved but perhaps something on the other end of the spectrum, something holy or angelic. The wet petals may signify a growing population, a new hope to a dying area, the "black bough". All in all, the poem may be interpreted in either fashion with the evidence supporting either claim and leaving the poem open to interpretation.