In a Station of the Metro, by Ezra Pound →

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“In a Station of the Metro “ by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough

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Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” captures a moment of vivid imagery: the speaker, observing a crowd in a subway station, imagines the faces as petals on a tree branch. These faces aren’t described in detail, but sensed—as ghostlike presences, flickering identities that may have come to guide or support the traveler. The metro suggests motion and transition; the faces evoke the quiet possibility of help along the way.

But the poem leaves us with an unsettling ambiguity: Was it really help that came? The faces are damp, shadowed—more like drifting petals than living forms. Their presence feels more botanical than human, more ephemeral than comforting. In the end, we’re left to wonder whether the traveler encountered connection—or simply passed through a ghostly mirage of it.