Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound is widely considered one of the most influential poets of the 20th century; his
contributions to modernist poetry were 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 such as Imagism and Vorticism. His life’s work, The Cantos, remains a signal
modernist epic. His first major critical work, The Spirit of Romance (1910), was, Pound said, an
attempt to examine “certain forces, elements or qualities which were potent in the medieval
literature of the Latin tongues, and are, I believe, still potent in our own.”

Ezra Pound: Poems Themes · The Importance of Aesthetics and Art · Imagism · Economics ·
Love · Nature · History · Journey.

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Petals on a wet, black bough.

In a Station of the Metro published in 1913 by Ezra Pound is the best example of Imagist poetry
that contains just 14 words reduced from thirty lines which depict the precision of language.
This poem is one of the verb-less poem among the very few.

Pound describes his experience in a metro station in Paris in this poem. The different faces of
individual in the metro station is best shown in the poem with an equation of words. This kind
of treatment of the words creates a visual effect which is known as the quintessential Imagist
text.

This poem is extremely short, but carries a deep meaning with it. On the surface, this poem has
two separate images: the crowd and the branch. Actually, Pound is placing one image on top of
the other, so that we see them as a single image. Therefore, the faces in the crowd become
beautiful, like flower petals on a rainy day. The petals, meanwhile, become faces in a crowd.
This new combined image is the real "apparition" - it floats before our eyes like a ghost which
lives in no particular time or place.
Written in Japanese famous poetic form haiku, Pound in three lines (including the title) creates
a chain of images like the metro station, the apparition, the faces in the crowd and the petals on
a wet black bough. The title of the poem creates the visual image of the busy city life with the
hustle and bustle of the people and their carelessness to other people. The apparition literally
means ghostly figure that suddenly appears in front of you. Here, Pound equates the new
strange faces seen in a Paris subway with the apparition. These apparitions are mysterious, and
the poet shows the expression of surprise. The faces in the crowd are blurred for the poet and he
finds inexpressible beauty in that blur vision.

Till now the words and their images, create a visual image of something undesirable and messy
situation of metro life. But the sudden image of "petals on a wet, black bough" amazes because
of the unexpected beauty in a boring city metro station. The unexpected beauty in an
unexpected place is beautifully and tactfully presented in a very precise way. This is the exact
power and splendor of the Imagist poetry to depict the relationship among the different images
to cater a beautiful meaning. The ‘apparition’ and the ‘petals on a wet, black bough’ are
distinctly opposite images that create two distinct images in our minds, but the poet surprisingly
delivers a stunning message to see beauty in chaos and in the humdrum of life. The color, shape
and size of a person may vary, but each has his/her own beauty that may be an inner or outer
beauty.

The human life is described and summarized in just few imagery that goes beyond the limits of
standard imagery. ‘Petals on a wet, black bough’ is the phrase which vividly shows the elegance
of life and meanwhile show the impermanence of human life. Petals are found in nature in
various vibrant colors which represents different human faces and the petals that lie in the wet,
black bough symbolizes the transitory ness of life. It was alive and attached to its stem few
moments earlier and now it is on the wet surface of bough lying lifeless. It may live a few
moments long, but not longer. This metaphor of petals on the surface of bough powerfully yet
simply summarizes the human life and its shortness: we all are mortal being.

A Girl
Weston Loomis Pound is generally regarded as a commanding and prominent literary figure of
the 20th century. He was a critic, well-known American poet, and fascist collaborator during
World War 2. He wrote 'A Girl' by using his iconic imagism. He is referring to Greek
Mythology Apollo, the sun god, and Daphne, a nymph, but due to the extreme brevity of Pound,
the poem has many contemporary interpretations.

Though the poem has a strong basis in mythology,the critics seem divided on whether the true
interpretation of this poem lies in mythology or is a lesson on childhood imagination; it is
possible that Pound had both meanings in mind. According to me, Pound refers to the common
Greek mythology and my interpretation will also revolve around the myth. It will be better to
give an overview of the Greek myth, and the love story of Apollo and Daphne.

According to Greek mythology, Apollo was the god of the sun and poetry, and he has to pull the
sun in his 4-horse chariot every day while on the other hand, Daphne, a nymph was the
daughter of a river god. Daphne was famous for her utmost beauty and attraction. She tries to be
a virgin for the rest of her life and gets successful. It is generally believed that Apollo once
made a mockery of Eros, the sun of love that he lost his power. Eros retaliated very
aggressively and hit two arrows, one struck Apollo and made him fall in love with Daphne, and
a lead arrow made Daphne hate Apollo. Apollo followed Daphne consistently and ran after her
like mad. Daphne as we aforesaid that was the daughter of Peneus, the river god, asking help
from her father to preserve her virginity.

Her father finally transformed her body into a small plant with an amazing smell. Apollo comes
nearer to her and finally, the flight was arrested, as her feet took root in the ground. Her body
dwindled, her arms shot up, and as Apollo seized her in his arms, he found himself grasping a
bush of laurel with shining leaves the color of Daphne's dark-green hair. It’s believed in Greek
mythology that Daphne has to sacrifice her body and turn it into a tree as this was the only way
she could avoid Apollo’s sexual advances. After that Apollo in sorrow wears the bark clothes.

The tree has entered my hands,

Here Ezra Pound used split narration. It seems that the first stanza is narrated by Daphne and the second from
the perspective of a third-person onlooker, likely Apollo. The poem’s imagery in metaphorical terms seems
easy yet passionate, living yet inanimate, tender yet strong, and soft yet seething. In the first stanza, Daphne is
sharing her feelings when being transformed. it can also represent a girl wanting to break free, to escape her life,
just like a poem, away of putting everything on hold and expressing differently what we feel about things. She
is saying that her hands are converting into a tree and shots up in her arms. Her feet are deeply rooted to the
ground. This short discussion can easily be linked with the context, Greek mythology.

Tree you are,

The second stanza is the perspective of Apollo, the sun god, who fell in love with Daphne. Here the poet
describes a kind of violation that seems very fragile even in the wind, surrounds the tree. He considered it
nothing but foolishness.The poet uses “A child—so high—you are/and this is folly to the world” to depict
Apollo’s distress following Daphne’s alteration into a tree just to show her hatred that she kept for Apollo.

Pound has tried to signify to his readers that she is distinct from others girls (The Daphne). The difference is
analogized by vegetation that develops on her body.Her flaws good or bad progressively become more apparent
to the world as a tree begins to grow from her hands downward. She illustrates how the wings grow out and
extrude themselves for the world to see. Her fault becomes more visible as Pound analogizes more plants. When
the poet states You are violets with wind above them./A child so high you are, He is implying that she is proud
of her fault. He ends the poem explaining how this blemish is an absurdity to the world, meaning that the world
rejects to accept his uniqueness. Ezra Pound is proud of his defect.

Analysis:

In the poem ‘A girl’, Ezra Pound used two mythical characters as the leading flow of the poem. The first one
was the myth of Apollo, the Sun God, and the second was Daphne, a nymph. When it comes to Apollo, the Sun
God, there is a traditional myth that he insulted Eros (or Cupid, which is his Roman name) saying that he was
unworthy of his (Eros) bow and arrow which were warlike. In anger, Eros threw two arrows, each separately for
Apollo and Daphne, the nymph.
The poet has emphasized on Eros’s emotions behind his actions, in throwing two separate arrows at both of
them. An arrow that would make Apollo fall in love with Daphne while an arrow of hatred that would make
Daphne loath Apollo, making Apollo suffer. While this story has a strong mythological perspective, and a clear
intention by Pound to deliver a specific message to the poem, there are many contemporary interpretations.

There might be a chance that the first narrator is an older child detailing her transformation into a tree in a
figurative way, letting her imaginations run wild in the process. On the other hand, the second stanza can be
understood from the perspective of an adult, who feels that she should escape into the reverie, reminding the girl
that even if the world thinks of her figurative transformation and more importantly her rampant imaginations as
“folly”, she shouldn’t let anything dampen her creative side of imagination.

The poet uses “A child—so high—you are/and this is folly to the world” to portray Apollo’s anguish following
Daphne’s transformation into a tree just to express the loathing that she possessed for Apollo. The poem opens a
vast space for the readers to use their creative perspective to understand the tone of the story and see the poem
from different, and versatile angles.

An Immorality:

An Immorality" by Ezra Pound is very brief and straightforward. The author expresses how we,
being people in the world, praise the concept and terms "love" and "laziness." Even though he
has lived in many places, none of them were for him. He honestly couldn't care less. He plainly
states that he would rather be with his lover than go to war. From this simple poem, I can
interpret that author, or character, is a selfish man, that is only concerned with himself. He is
unwilling to fight for, or defend his homeland, or his new land. It is easy to understand that the
author simply wants love and peace. But does he want that for himself or for where he lives, is
the question. Another question is centered around the title. It is called an immorality, but love is
not an immorality. If it is, then moral things must be hate and war; the opposite. The author
must believe that immoralities for him are not the same for others. We all have our own
personal views and beliefs that can affect ourselves as well as others. 

An Immorality" by Ezra Pound

Sing we for love and idleness,

And I would rather have my sweet,

Than do high deeds in Hungary

When considering the meaning behind this poem by Ezra Pound, we must first consider the fact
that the title is "An Immorality." And, if we are not to ascribe the ideas of the poem to the
author himself, we have two narrators (one of which is the author,if we do ascribe one level of
the ideas to the author). The first narrator is the one who titles the work "An Immorality." If this
is the title, then it follows that what follows it is considered by that narrator to be "immoral."
Thus, singing a song of "love and idleness" is, to this narrator, immoral. But who is doing the
singing? That would, of course, be the second narrator, whose ideas the first narrator considers
to be immoral. Clearly the second narrator sees love and idleness to be the highest things in life:

Though I have been in many a land,

He is a man who simply wants love and peace (he does NOT want to do high deeds in
Hungary). But the first narrator calls this "an immorality." What is immoral about such liberal
sentiments? That they are liberal sentiments? If this is an immorality, then the opposite must be
morality: action and war.

Next, we must also consider the date of its publication, in 1912, in Ripostes. What was
happening around the time Pound likely wrote this poem -- around 1910-11 -- in Hungary? And
why are we to contrast it with "love and idleness"?
At that time serious serious tension with the Jews living there. Of particular note, one of the
main controversies surrounding the Jews involved the issue of language. Whether the Jews
learned the Hungarian langauge Magyar or not, they managed to anger somebody living in
Hungary. What "high deeds" might Pound have in mind in Hungary? This may be a hint at
Pound's antisemitism. Indeed, the implicit identity of action and war with morality in this poem
points early on to Pounds incipient fascism -- and certainly to his antiliberalism. Indeed,
Ludwig von Mises, in his 1927 book "Liberalism", points to a certain breed of antiliberal
thinker who "believe it is through war and war alone that mankind is able to make progress" and
that "Man degenerates in time of peace. Only war awakens in him slumbering talents and
powers and imbues him with sublime ideals. If war were to be abolished, mankind would decay
into indolence and stagnation" (5). Certainly if this is true of war, then a love of peace and
idleness is immoral. Who would support stagnation, degeneration, burying our talents and
powers and ideals, and indolence (idleness)? This too was an idea later promoted by the
fascists, including the Italian Futurists.

One might find here an implicit criticism of a particular theory of culture as well. Pound's
mention of "idleness" suggests Thorsten Veblen's thesis in "The Theory of the Leisure Class,"
published in 1899, where Veblen suggests that only with the emergence of a "leisure class"
could artistic culture emerge. But he also argued that this same class held power through
coersion and maintaining a monopoly on warfare. For Veblen, idleness is necessary in order to
have an artistic culture at all. Did Pound know Veblen's work when he wrote "An Immorality"?
Well, he certainly knew it when he wrote his pro-fascist diatribe Jefferson and/or Mussolini.
Both were antiliberal, though certainly in different ways, and Pound may have by this point
found some things in common with Veblen's ideas. Of course, I do not know for certain that
Pound had read Veblen by this point, so both men's antiliberalism may have merely resulted in
parallel conclusions -- it would be up to a far more serious Pound scholar than myself to answer
the question of what Pound had read by around 1910.

It seems then that the title of the poem acts as a critique of what follows in the body of the
poem. If we just take the body of the poem, it seems like a lovely little romantic poem extolling
love and idleness. But if we take the title into consideration, we have to understand that the first
narrator -- the one giving the title -- sees what follows as immoral. As such, we can see in it the
narrator's (Pound's, most likely) antiliberalism.