In Ezra Pound’s short two-lined poem, he depicts the dreary scene of a busy metro station. Pound’s deliberate choice of words such as wet and dark builds on this cheerless setting. The word apparition suggests that glimpses of people at the station are fleeting and always changing, creating a tone of unpredictability or even unreliability. The unusual structure of the poem forces a blending of two separate thoughts: the abrupt presence of passengers and petals on a tree. As the passengers come and go from the station, their faces begin to resemble petals on a dark and dreary bough.
This is a very short poem that describes at the same pace of the scene. Fast as it may seem just like how it feels when you're in a subway as it speeds away from the platform. When the door opens, it quickly reveals the “Sea of faces” then gone after it closes. As a Modernist Poet, the writer uses few descriptive words to strongly to lay out his point across.
