Jonathan,
Who supposed the *choice* of image to be "instantaneous"?  That the poem is
the product of vision and revision does not in any way undermine the point
that the image presents a phenomenon in an immediate way, that is,
unmediated by conceptual category, or the point that the word "apparition"
is a mere placeholder in the mind for some secondhand notions--secondhand,
that is, if one has never had an apparition.   Experiences of the "first
intensity" can be recollected in tranquility. The spontaneity is not in the
writing but in the reading: a poet might take a very long time to craft a
passage in which a sense of haste and decision is the desired effect.
Tim Romano


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan P. Gill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2000 8:52 AM
Subject: petals


> There's lots to gain from following the way Pound developed the supposedly
> instantaneous image in "In a Station of the Metro"--it was not the result
> of a sudden flash of inspiration, but the careful result of many months
> and many drafts, much pruning and selecting, which makes the incoherence
> of the image even more fascinating. It's possible to follow the whole
> process in one sitting via the ever-invaluable Poetry and Prose (See pp.
> 147, 279, and 281 in Vol. I).
>
> It's also worth looking at Pound's poem "Laudantes Decem Pulchritudinis
> Johannae Temple," from Exultations (1909).  In this poem, Pound also uses
> the image of petals as faces.
>
> So much for first intensities!
>
> Jonathan Gill
> Columbia University
>
>