Imagism


 * In a Station of the Metro ** The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.--Ezra Pound
 * Imagism** was a poetic movement founded in 1912 in opposition to past romantic movements that stressed the use of meter, rhyme, and metaphor. Instead, Imagism focused on "Hardness of outline, clarity of image, brevity, suggestiveness, [and] freedom from metric laws." The movement was led by poets such as T.T. Hulme, @Ezra Pound, and Hilda Doolittle, though when Pound left the movement to create Vorticism, Amy Lowell became the primary proponent.

=**Background**=

Imagism shares its roots directly with a French poetic movement called "symbolism." Similar to Imagism, symbolism held to the belief of concision, clarity, and exactness with the intention of retaliating against romanticism and freeing French poetry from "conventional form." Other movements that served as precursors to the Imagists were the cubists, fantasists, unanimists, dadaists, and the surrealists.

Though T.E. Hulme is credited as the "father of imagism," Ezra Pound is often credited for sparking the movement in 1910. Ezra Pound sent poems written by Hilda Doolittle and Richard Aldington to Harriet Monroe, the editor of the chicago based journal entitled //Poetry//. Along with the poems Pound wrote to Monroe: ‘This is the sort of American stuff that I can show here in Paris without its being ridiculed. Objective – no slither; direct – no excessive use of adjectives; no metaphors that won’t permit examination. It’s straight talk, straight as the Greek!’

In 1914 Pound left the Imagist movement in favor of beginning a new movement with Whyndam Lewis called Vorticism . The movement was then picked up by Amy Lowell, who did not expand upon its virtues, but kept the movement alive until April of 1917, when the final Imagist publication was produced.

=**Intent**=

Imagism calls for a return to what is seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms. The intent of Imagism is to write poetry that uses imagery solely to convey the poems' meaning. It's purpose was to cut out that which was not needed from poetry, so that each stanza was free from unnecessary wordiness and ambiguity. No picture presented or metaphor given should lack clarity, an aspect that Imagists regarded as "careless thinking."

In Pound's Imagism Manifesto, he detailed the Common Principles of Imagism with six key points. The first of which was to use the exact word intended. Imagism was not about beating around the bush, so to speak, with carelessly chosen words, but rather aimed at using the word that would present the experience in the clearest possible way. The second point was to engage and employ new, fresh rhythms. Pound felt that using traditional rhythms and patterns was a bore. He felt poetry could best be expressed when each poem had an individual feel and expression. Thirdly Pound didn't feel it was appropriate to limit, in any way, the subject matter of poetry. However, he felt that it was vital that if an artist chooses a topic, the artist feels strongly about the topic. It would be considered a waste to invest in a topic that one did not feel committed to. Pound's fourth point was that a writer should feel the same responsibility to presenting his art as a painter does. When a painter paints, his skill is based off of his ability to correctly portray and show a likeness to the original picture and/or experience. In the same way, a poet should aspire to write in a fashion that does his topic justice in the sense of worthwhile content that readily gives an accurate portrayal. Fifth was the idea that poetry should be clear. It should be written in such a concise manner that there is little left to be considered ambiguous. The writer is to craft his work in such a way that it is, "never blurred, nor indefinite." The sixth and final principle is that of concentration. Pound correlated concentration directly with poetry and did not believe that poetry could exist without it.

=The Imagist Manifesto=

> 1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word. > > 2. To create new rhythms -- as the expression of new moods -- and not to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for a principle of liberty. 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. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art to write badly of aeroplanes and automobiles, nor is it necessarily bad art to write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic value of modem life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so uninspiring nor so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 1911. > > 4. To present an image (hence the name: "Imagist"). 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 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. > > =Related Poetic Techniques=

Imagism shares similar views regarding the liberation of poetry as does words-in-freedom. The third Imagist principle is, "To allow absolute freedom in choice of subject." There were limitations on poetry thanks to the expectations surrounding what was appropriate subject matter for a poet. Imagism rebelled against that idea, and encouraged a writing style that was interested in wise topic matter. However, instead of content deciding the relevance of a text, it was more-so about the poet's investment in his subject matter. Imagism asked the question, "Why limit that which could be limitless?" In doing so it paved a way for its poets to express and explore an infinite realm of possibilities.

In a similar fashion metonymy was used as a part of Imagist poetry, as opposed to metaphor. Metaphor functions in such a way that is at odds with the principles of Imagism. It explains and describes things by discussing an entirely different subject. Again, the first key point of the manifesto is, "To use language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.". Thus we can see why it was important for Imagist poets to adopt certain and specific styles of writing to be able to aptly write in such a way as to not compromise their ability to relate in a concise manner.

=**Associated Writers**=

The Imagist movement had a relatively small amount of poets committed to the cause. However, among it's ranks were several talented poets worth noting.


 * T.E. Hulme**- Though considered the "father of imagism," Hulme is not as well known as other Imagist poets. He wrote very little poetry, five printed poems in total, but wrote many periodicals. From 1908 to 1912, Hulme acted as a leader to a group of artists called the Poets' Club. In their meetings, "experimental imagist poems" were discussed. Though none of these artists became official Imagists, these meetings were among the first of the movement.


 * Ezra Pound**- Pound was essential to the development of Imagism, and he is recognized as having affected the work of poets such as Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams. While he was committed to writing with ingenuity and creativeness, his own writing often reflected poetry styles and events from the past. True to Imagism's French symbolist background, Pound's works were inspired by French poets such as Remy de Gourmont, Jules de Gaultier, "Gautier, Rimbaud, Corbiere, and Laforgue." He left the Imagist group in 1914 because he feared the movement's stagnation.


 * William Carlos Williams**- Unlike Pound, Williams was interested in capturing not the essence of history so much, but rather that of every day life in America. He was very much invested in the America he was living in, despite the fact he was a child of immigrants and muti-lingual. He embraced the imagism approach and when speaking of what poets should write is quoted saying, "No ideas but in things."


 * Hilda Doolittle**- H.D.'s poem's were reshaped by Pound and sent in to //Poetry// magazine. The beginning of the Imagist movement is attributed largely to this event. She was a leader of the movement and her poems were consistently sharp, clear and concise. Additionally, "Her Work is characterized by the intense strength of her images, economy of language, and use of classical mythology."

=**Development and Response to Imagism**=

The first responses to Imagism were relatively mixed. Many of the first readers were partial to the old ways of rhyme and rhythm, and thus were more inclined to judge Imagism critically for its rallying of a new world of poetry. One critic of Imagism was Modernist poet Wallace Stevens. He had this to say: "Not all objects are equal. The vice of imagism was that it did not recognize this."

As a response to Pound and Williams, Imagism became a large part of objectivist poetry. Objectivist poets of the 1930's became influenced by the idea of Louis Zukofsky who stated in his introduction to the 1931 Objectivist issue of //Poetry//, "which is the detail, not mirage, of seeing, of thinking with the things as they exist, and of directing them along a line of melody."

Vorticism
After Pound became disinterested in Imagism, he left the movement around 1914 in search of new affairs. He feared Imagism's stagnation and felt that there was nothing more to be added. It was around this time that he began the Vorticist movement with Gaudier-Brzeska and Whyndham Lewis. Vorticism was named in reference to the "vortex," a point in mechanics that represents the "greatest efficiency." It was this momentum that drove Vorticism past its previous poetic counterparts. On June 20, 1914, the Vorticist magazine //Blast// (which only lasted for two publications) was first published and edited by Lewis. //Blast// heavily mocked works confined by educational and economical standards such as //The New York Times.// The movement ended during World War I.

=**Examples**=

The poem is metonymic in style as opposed to metaphoric, an important aspect of Imagism. While metaphor distances itself from the objects by likening them to fantastical meanings, metonymy seeks to understand the objects on a gut level, so that one object logically suggests an idea. In "Song of the Bowmen of Shu", "We grub the soft fern-shoots" tells the reader that the soldiers are marching in the Spring time, not to mention "What flower has come to blossom?" (127). The mentioning of fern-shoots and blossoms brings to mind spring time.
 * //Cathay, 1915// Ezra Pound's translation of Li Bai, or Rihaku**

"The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind./The paired butterflies are already yellow with/August" places two similar-looking images together as a sort of pictorial rhythm, two like images that pair well with one another without the use of metaphor. The butterflies are not the leaves and the leaves are not the butterflies. They simply are what they are, and both bring about images of Autumn. The poem has a lack of standard rhythm and rhyme, but still makes use of assonance, consonance, and alliteration. In the line "Just reflecting the sky's tinge" (129), the 't' sounds resonate together like taps on a crystal glass to instill a delicate touch of emotion, while the next line ("And heard the five-score nightingales aimlessly sing-/ing") brings about a sing-song quality that reflects the subtle metronome quality of the previous.


 * //Spring and All, 1923// William Carlos Williams**

Williams' //Spring and All// is a celebration of the @Imagination and a rebuttal against the confines of language by "art," the "beautiful illusion," [cite] also referred to as the "constant barrier between the reader and his consciousness of immediate contact with the world" (177). It takes a stance against art critics, in which the critic undermines imagination in favor of educational standards and the imagination's ability to destroy and create//: "//The imagination, intoxicated by prohibitions, rises to drunken heights to destroy the world. Let it rage, let it kill. The imagination is supreme" (179). There is a constant interruption of thought to mimic the progressive nature of Imagism, where the new is welcome and the old is tossed aside: "If the power to go on falters in the middle of a sentence--that is the end of the sentence--Or if a new phrase enters at that point it is only stupidity to go on" (226). Conventional rhythm and rhyme is regarded as plagiarism, saying that Iambic Pentameter was once original (entire section of why William Shakespeare is revered as revolutionary because he let only his imagination drive his work) and how there is no need to directly copy his influence.

=References=

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