IN A STATION OF THE METRO

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet black bough. -ezra pound, 1914



Juniors: The Imagist poets were the first Modernists, the poets of the jazz Age, Gatsby's era. The tensions of the First World War and a desire by the artist to free himself from the constraints of tradition, had allowed for the Impressionist and the Fauvist painters to enter the scene like electronic rain on a tin roof. But in poetry it began softer, a whisper, with poems like Pound's "In a Metro Station" and the poems of ee cummings.

But I don't have an image that goes well with the poem (a haiku). Assignment: Decifer the poem and print out an image or photo (a painting, a magazine ad, anything) that expresses the intent of the poet. This haiku, only 20 words long including the title, is the poet's impression of people waiting for a train in Paris. What is the story of the poem? Is the poet merely creating an image? Is there any kind of emotion presented? Don't answer these questions, simply paste into your journals a picture with the poem printed beneath it like a caption.

Remember, you have a PowerPoint assignment due in two weeks and a paper due on Friday (trade up those paper clips). The PPT is an "Illuminated Text," as you recall, that should contain graphics and maybe music, but it must focus mainly on the text of any ee cummings poem. Make the words pop, wiggle, spin, do what ever to express the emotion of the poet in a graphic style. This is hard. Make it work. Get help if you need it.