Imagism
From: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/imagism-def.html
Last modified: Sunday, 23-Jun-1996 11:51:19 EDT
Imagism
Name given to a movement in poetry, originating in 1912 and
represented by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others, aiming at clarity of
expression through the use of precise visual images. In the early period
often written in the French form Imagisme.
IMAGISTS
A group of American and English poets whose poetic program
was formulated about 1912 by Ezra Pound--in
conjunction with fellow poets Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Richard Aldington,
and F.S. Flint--and was inspired by the critical views of T.E. Hulme, in
revolt against the careless thinking and Romantic optimism he saw prevailing.
The Imagists wrote succinct verse of dry clarity and hard
outline in which an exact visual image made a total poetic statement. Imagism
was a successor to the French Symbolist movement, but, whereas Symbolism
had an affinity with music, Imagism sought analogy with sculpture. In 1914
Pound turned to Vorticism, and Amy Lowell largely took over leadership
of the group. Among others who wrote Imagist poetry were John
Gould Fletcher and Harriet Monroe; and Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, Wallace
Stevens, D.H. Lawrence, and T.S. Eliot were influenced by it in their own
poetry.
The four Imagist anthologies (Des Imagistes, 1914;
Some Imagists, 1915, 1916, 1917), and the magazines Poetry
(from 1912) and The Egoist (from 1914), in the United States and
England, respectively, published the work of a dozen Imagist poets.
From an Imagist manifesto:
1. To use the language of common speech,
but to employ the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative
word.
2. We believe that the individuality of a
poet may often be better expressed in free verse than in conventional forms.
In poetry, a new cadence means a new idea.
3. Absolute freedom in the choice of subject.
4. To present an image. We are not a school
of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly
and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It
is for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk
the real difficulties of his art.
5. To produce a poetry that is hard and clear,
never blurred nor indefinite.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration
is of the very essence of poetry.
--Al Filreis