When I first read this poem, it was hard for me to grasp what Ezra Pound was trying say. It took me a few times to be able to vaguely grasp what pound was trying to say. For the argument that the poem is anti modernist, the first word the stood out to me was word “apparition.” Apparition is usually associated with ghost or thing unnatural. Pound might use this word to describe the peoples’ faces to suggest that they have become “dead” to the real world because of technology. The setting of the poem is that of a subway in Paris which I would assume would be busy, yet the apparition of the faces could mean that because of technology, people have distanced themselves from each other. The second thing that supports an anti modernist message is “…the petals on a wet, black bough.” When we think of petals we think usually of spring or associate it with beauty, but in the poem the petals are resting on a wet bough. The petals which can represent all that is beautiful about people, has fallen onto a black bough. The black bough can be representative of technology and the negativity that it brings, since the bough is black.

A strong argument can be made that Ezra Pound’s poem has an anti modernist theme, but you can also argue that his poem is pro modernist. The word apparition not only means ghostly but also unsuspected or startling. This definition of the word may suggest a more positive outlook on modernist beliefs. The startled look could mean a look of excitement to the future of technology. The people that the author describes can be in awe of the technology that surrounds them in the crowded subway. The petals that Pound describes may still be representative of people but the black bough that they rest on may have a different meaning. The black bough can be representative of the lack of technology. Black is usually a color which suggest bad, evil, or death. A bough is a big branch of a tree, which is usually symbolic of life. The black bough can be symbolic of technology which is a part of life. The bough is black so it may suggest that the technology part of life is dead. However, the petals on the bough maybe symbolic of how people are trying to bring life back to technology.