Metro station

The poem's primary setting, a metro station, symbolizes man's dependence on technology. During his time in Paris, Pound frequented Paris's Concorde metro station, an underground, industrial hallmark of Parisian urban life. Without the station, he would be significantly handicapped in his ability to travel around the city. In this way, Pound understood the station as a necessity of life, along with the rest of technology. Access to home, to gainful employment, and even access to friends hinges upon one's access to the metro station and to public transport. The symbolism of the metro station becomes all the more striking when one sees it juxtaposed with the scene in Pound's imagination: "Petals on a wet, black bough" (2). A metro station is the last place one would expect to see any kind of flora or fauna. Thus, the technology of man's life is unapologetically connected to the...