IN A STATION OF THE METRO by Ezra Pound( ) The apparition of these faces in the crowd ; Petals on a wet, black bough. Notes: Apparition: the spirit of a dead person in the form that can be seen. 幽灵，鬼魂 Petal: 花瓣 Bough: 树枝

Pound said he wrote this poem to convey an experience: emerging one day from a train in the Paris subway (Metro), he saw ”suddenly a beautiful face, and then another and another.” Originally he had described his impression in a poem 30 lines long. In this final version, each line contains an image, which, like a picture, may take the place of a thousand words.

Images in poetry generally mean : a word or sequence of words that refer to any sensory experience: sight (visual imagery) sound (auditory imagery) touch (tactile imagery) It may be an odor or a taste or perhaps a bodily sensation such as pain, the quenching of thirst and so on.

To speak of the imagery of a poem---all its images taken together---is often more useful than to speak of separate images. The image asks to be seen with the mind’s eye, that is, imagining it.

The Winter Evening Settles Down by T.S. Eliot( ) The winter evening settles down With smell of steaks in passageways. Six o'clock. The burnt-out ends of smoky days. And now a gusty shower wraps The grimy scraps Of withered leaves about your feet And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat On broken blinds and chimney-pots, And at the corner of the street A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. And then the lighting of the lamps.

Questions: What mood is evoked by the images in the poem? What kind of city neighborhood has the poet chosen to describe? How can you tell?

The Victory BY ANNE STEVENSON I thought you were my victory though you cut me like a knife when I brought you out of my body into your life. Tiny antagonist, gory, blue as a bruise. The stains of your cloud of glory bled from my veins.

How can you dare, blind thing, blank insect eyes? You barb the air. You sting with bladed cries. Snail. Scary knot of desires. Hungry snarl. Small son. Why do I have to love you? How have you won?

Questions: Newborn babies are often described as “little angels” or “bundles of joy”. How does the speaker describe her son? Why is the poem titled “ The Victory” ？

Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter Robert Bly It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted. The only things moving are swirls of snow. As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron. There is a privacy I love in this snowy night. Driving around, I will waste more time.

Questions: What are the key images in the poem? How can you tell the change in the speaker’s attitude?

For review and further study 1. The Runner by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) ON a flat road runs the well-train’d runner; He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs; He is thinly clothed—he leans forward as he runs, With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais’d.

2. Image by T.E. Hulme( ) Old houses were scaffolding once and workmen whistling.

3.Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Are by John Keats( ) Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-- Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priest-like task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-- No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

4.Embrace by Billy Collins (b. 1941) You know the parlor trick. wrap your arms around your own body and from the back it looks like someone is embracing you, her hands grasping your shirt, her fingernails teasing your neck. From the front it is another story. you never looked so alone, your crossed elbows and screwy grin. you could be waiting for a tailor to fit you with a straight jacket, one that would hold you really tight.