Journal publishing and academic communication

¶ … Ezra Pound

The words of the poem entitled "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound reads as follows: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough." The formal image generated the poem is really two images. The title suggests that the poet is in a metro station, looking at faces in a crowd. The second, metaphorical image is of flower petals on a tree in the rain. This suggests that the poet is in the Paris metro station on a rainy day, looking at the wet, sodden black overcoats and umbrellas of his fellow passengers. The folds of clothing and raingear look like wet petals, and the station inside is dark, or black. The word 'apparition' suggests a ghost, meaning that Pound may think he recognizes the faces of several people he knows, even though this is unlikely to be true on a literal level. The poem's image suggests the feelings of being in a strange place, and seeing people who look like your friends even though you know this cannot be true.

The metaphorical image that springs to mind when reading the poem is of a black branch with sodden, wet flowers that look like faces. Sometimes, even looking at flowers or other inanimate objects, especially through a misty rain, a person may think that he or she sees the image of a human face. The flowers on the wet, dark bough look like familiar human faces, even though they are only petals being crushed by the rain. This image suggests the poignancy of the poem. The poet is looking for something familiar, but he can only dream that he sees familiar faces as ghosts. He knows the apparitions are not any more real than the people in the Metro are real flowers. The poem also suggests how something fragile and beautiful like a flower can be crushed and turned into something wet, but not necessarily ugly. Like the past, flowers can be easily destroyed by the rain, even though the gazer still wants to remember the people he knew in another place and time.

Informal Journal: Graves

The poem "The Naked and the Nude" by Robert Graves immediately creates a contrast between the different connotations of words. For example, the word "naked" sounds very harsh. This is why Graves say that the naked "know defeat." The phrase "the naked and the dead" comes to mind, or in Graves' phrase the naked tread the "briary pastures of the dead." When someone is naked, they are stripped bare of everything, not just their clothing, but often their dignity and personal identity as well. A "nude" has much more positive and human connotations. For example, the famous statue of "Venus" is called the study of a "nude." Venus is beautiful, and not stripped of her dignity, rather the sculptor pays homage to her form by removing her clothing.

In contemporary society, which has a less respectful view of the unclothed body, the words "nude beach" often brings people to giggle. But no one would ever say a "naked beach," because the word naked has a much more negative and less funny connotative meaning. or, as Graves writes: "The nude are bold, the nude are sly," because they have an unconcealed (no pun intended) pride about their lack of clothing and open sensuality and defiance of convention.