Ezra Pound: Poems Lesson Plan

How is “In a Station of the Metro” different from other poems you have read (by Pound or otherwise)? What is it “lacking”? What qualities do you find compelling?

A classroom activity for this day will directly address the imagist movement, but this discussion question is simply intended to have students begin thinking about the qualities of the poetry itself. First of all, the poem is incredibly short (just fourteen words)! This negates many of the common features usually recognizable in poetry: there is not enough time to establish a meter, rhyme scheme, etc. The rhythm of the few words that are written are compelling. While the first line flows in an iambic hexameter,...