Monsieur 18% Gris Prend Le Metro

Apr 15, 2026

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

—Ezra Pound

This is Pound’s poem In a Station of the Metro. I have to admit not much I learnt in college stayed with me, but this is an exception. Since I’ve picked up photography, I’ve got a renewed appreciation for the poem. For one thing, it paints such a picture with so few words: the ghostly faces, and the white petals on black bough. Oftentimes when I think of the poem, I’d think: I want to catch that on photo. For another thing, the editing process is an inspiration to me as someone who’s never good at editing my own photos, killing your own baby as called in journalism. The poem was edited down to just 14 words from 30 lines. I’m sure the original was good, but the final 14 words is something else. I don’t know if I’ll ever get my In a Station of the Metro in photography, and for most of the time, I am not even trying, but this poem will always be an inspiration to me as one who takes photos, mostly black and white. That's the end of my rant for today.

I went Paris with this poem in my head, and of course I had to take photos of Le Metro. And here they are.