Return to Nature

When Pound writes "In a Station of the Metro," the world is on the brink of World War I and the full weight of the second major industrial revolution has settled in the public consciousness. Technology, industrialization, and man's power over nature are pressing considerations in the minds of artists and politicians alike. The Paris metro, which Pound rides in his poem, has only been open since 1900; the poem is published in 1913. Considering its relative novelty, Pound's reflections on the metro are more historically conscious than they may first appear. At the time Pound writes, the expansive Paris metro is a relatively untested and rapidly expanding sociological force. It is unclear what this fast-paced technological growth will mean for Parisian and French citizens at large, just as it is unclear what having impressive technology at one's fingertips means for man's soul. "In a Station...