Paraphrasing a poem

[aaron.c678]

Can someone help me paraphrase this poem.
In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

[Leanne]

Is this your homework assignment?

[aaron.c678]

Is this your homework assignment?

yes please don't bash me, but i'm not very good with this poetry thing. To me it's like a foreign language. I have to present this monday and I have no idea what to say.

[Leanne]

OK, first you have to answer a couple of questions. How long have you had the assignment? Have you asked your teacher for help? And why have you been given this particular poem to look at? Is it part of a unit on a specific theme, or did your teacher just throw it at you without explanation? Oh, and how many words does this paraphrasing have to be?

In order to help you with your assignment -- and more importantly, help you to understand why poetry is worth understanding -- we need to know what you have to achieve here.

[aaron.c678]

OK, first you have to answer a couple of questions.  How long have you had the assignment?  Have you asked your teacher for help?  And why have you been given this particular poem to look at?  Is it part of a unit on a specific theme, or did your teacher just throw it at you without explanation?  Oh, and how many words does this paraphrasing have to be?

In order to help you with your assignment -- and more importantly, help you to understand why poetry is worth understanding -- we need to know what you have to achieve here.

He assigned it yesterday. So far we read three poems, this one and two others. I chose this because it was shorter. Below is the assignment. It's basically for participation points.

Choose a poem and present it to the class. You must include the following in your presentation:

1. a reading of the poem
2. a paraphrase of the poem—either line by line or stanza by stanza
3. an interpretation of the poem

[Leanne]

Length isn't necessarily a good way to choose poems

This poem uses a single image, that of a crowd in a railway station, to stand for quite a large idea: the frailty and impermanence of humanity. The poem has been stripped back to these few words because they are the most important -- remember that a poet of the calibre of Pound never uses a word by accident. Everything is there for a reason.

I'm not going to paraphrase it for you, because I think that's the easiest part once you work out what it's really trying to say.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; -- we know it's a busy station, presumably with lots of people, all of which have faces -- so why zero in on a few individual faces? What's this saying about a "faceless crowd"? Some will stand out to us. Some will be memorable. The rest will blend into a generic blob of peopleness. This line is the "setup", giving us context.

Petals on a wet, black bough. -- now the contrast, giving us the metaphor. The 'wet, black bough' (or branch) is quite a dismal and gloomy image, so I always think it's cold and has just rained, maybe at the start of spring when winter hasn't quite given up. Petals are new, fresh, delicate, and die quickly. They are bright spots amid the gloom, but they will not last.

Hope that helps you a little bit.

[Todd]

Pound was an imagist. You can look up imagism to get some context of what they were trying to do. It wasn't just to present the reader with crisp pictures. The images were supposed to set a mood and imply an abstract idea without referencing the idea directly.
So to interpret ask yourself what images or pictures is Pound sharing and how do those images make you feel?
Shorter poems sometimes require greater thought to work them out.
Good luck

[Todd]

How are faces in a crowd like wet petals on a branch? Why is it black? Why are they wet? Why apparition?
Write down a dictionary definition of every word that isn't a the or of and the like, even if you have a general idea of what they mean.
Precision will help you.

[aaron.c678]

Ok thank you both! Based on your responses I should have a better understanding. I'm still a little confused poetry is all new to me..

[just mercedes]

Ok thank you both! Based on your responses I should have a better understanding. I'm still a little confused poetry is all new to me..

Think of it as lyrics. That might help. Good luck - I'm sure you'll do fine. Let us know?

[rayheinrich]

Honesty rewarded with sincerity.

What wonderful people you are.

[SimikPK]

Honesty rewarded with sincerity.

What wonderful people you are.

Indeed. And as to understanding poetry, a little googling will provide you with the basic ideas, seek out some "Introduction to Literature/Poetry"-like books if you want a deeper understanding. It is not that difficult, actually. And sure inform us about the outcome.

[ellajam]

This poem was new to me, while Leanne took care of business a simple google brought plenty to complete  the assignment and was an interesting read. One site said the poem was originally 20 lines, interesting.
And some sites included Pound's own insights into the poem.

Thanks, aaron, I hope you learned as much as I did.

And thinking short meant easy was funny, hope you learned your lesson there.

Ha, just remembered I recently picked up an old Selected Poems of Pound, guess I'll read it.

[milo]

This poem was new to me, while Leanne took care of business a simple google brought plenty to complete  the assignment and was an interesting read. One site said the poem was originally 20 lines, interesting.
And some sites included Pound's own insights into the poem.
Thanks, aaron, I hope you learned as much as I did.
And thinking short meant easy was funny, hope you learned your lesson there.
Ha, just remembered I recently picked up an old Selected Poems of Pound, guess I'll read it.

Rumour has it that Pound considered it a sonnet. The first 8 words are the octet, the turn occurs and the last 6 are the sestet.

It is also one of the most important poems of the 20th century and considered the definition of the imagist movement. I believe it shows its face in several different spots on this very site.

[ellajam]

This poem was new to me, while Leanne took care of business a simple google brought plenty to complete  the assignment and was an interesting read. One site said the poem was originally 20 lines, interesting.
And some sites included Pound's own insights into the poem.
Thanks, aaron, I hope you learned as much as I did.
And thinking short meant easy was funny, hope you learned your lesson there.
Ha, just remembered I recently picked up an old Selected Poems of Pound, guess I'll read it.

Rumour has it that Pound considered it a sonnet. The first 8 words are the octet, the turn occurs and the last 6 are the sestet.

It is also one of the most important poems of the 20th century and considered the definition of the imagist movement. I believe it shows its face in several different spots on this very site.

I'm gonna poke around, see if I can find what people have to say.

[billy]

in for a penny in for pou...

[Brownlie]

Can someone help me paraphrase this poem.
In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

 
I think it has to do with the imagist movement. This might actually be one of the prototypical pieces of that movement (along with the Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams).

[rayheinrich]

Look at all that spacing and punctuation and shit:
 


"Imagists using words!"
                -Viking Eggeling

[bena]

good stuff there. And you guys don't know why I love white space----sometimes it has more meaning than words.

[brandontoh]

I wonder how that guy did for his presentation.