After a year, the speaker returns to the same subway station. The lights, the echoing roar, the trains burrowing underground, and the anxious, hurrying crowd have not changed. What has changed is the person at the speaker’s side. The sight of the tracks and the bridge overhead brings back a painful memory from this same place, when someone else begged the speaker to look up and asked, “Will you never love me?” The speaker answered with a lie, then saw that person’s hurt and wanted to take it back. Now the city keeps rushing on, but the speaker remains stuck in regret. The closing repetition of the hurrying crowd makes the speaker’s guilt feel all the more isolated. The mood is intimate, guilty, and quietly haunted by a love that could not be returned honestly.
In a Subway Station — Summary
After a year I came again to the place; The tireless lights and the reverberation, The angry thunder of trains that burrow the ground, The hunted, hurrying people were still the same-- But oh, another man beside me and not you! Another voice and other eyes in mine! And suddenly I turned and saw again The gleaming curve of tracks, the bridge above-- They were burned deep into my heart before, The night I watched them to avoid your eyes, When you were saying, "Oh, look up at me!" When you were saying, "Will you never love me?" And when I answered with a lie. Oh then You dropped your eyes. I felt your utter pain. I would have died to say the truth to you. After a year I came again to the place-- The hunted hurrying people were still the same....