Imagismwas a movement in early-20th-centurypoetrythat favored precision ofimageryand clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organizedmodernistliterary movement in the English language.[1]Imagism has been termed "a succession of creative moments" rather than a continuous or sustained period of development. The French academicRené Taupinremarked that "it is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine, nor even as a poetic school, but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles".[2]
The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical ofRomanticandVictorian poetry.In contrast to the contemporaryGeorgian poets,who were generally content to work within that tradition, Imagists called for a return to moreClassicalvalues, such as directness of presentation, economy of language, and a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms; Imagists usedfree verse.A characteristic feature of the form is its attempt to isolate a single image to reveal its essence. This mirrors contemporary developments inavant-gardeart, especiallyCubism.Although these poets isolate objects through the use of what the American poetEzra Poundcalled "luminous details", Pound'sideogrammic methodof juxtaposing concrete instances to express anabstractionis similar to Cubism's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.[3]
Imagist publications appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured works by many of the most prominentmodernistfigures inpoetryand other fields, including Pound,H.D.(Hilda Doolittle),Amy Lowell,Ford Madox Ford,William Carlos Williams,F. S. Flint,andT. E. Hulme.The Imagists were centered in London, with members from Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. Somewhat unusually for the time, a number of women writers were major Imagist figures.
Pre-Imagism
editThe origins of Imagism are to be found in two poems,AutumnandA City SunsetbyT. E. Hulme.[4]These were published in January 1909 by thePoets' Clubin London in a booklet calledFor Christmas MDCCCCVIII.Hulme was a student of mathematics and philosophy; he had been involved in setting up the club in 1908 and was its first secretary. Around the end of 1908, he presented his paperA Lecture on Modern Poetryat one of the club's meetings.[5]Writing inA. R. Orage's magazineThe New Age,the poet and criticF. S. Flint(a champion of free verse and modern French poetry) was highly critical of the club and its publications.[6]
From the ensuing debate, Hulme and Flint became close friends. In 1909, Hulme left the Poets' Club and started meeting with Flint and other poets in a new group which Hulme referred to as the "Secession Club"; they met at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in London'sSoho[7]to discuss plans to reform contemporary poetry through free verse and thetankaandhaikuand through the removal of all unnecessary verbiage from poems. The interest inJapanese verse formscan be contextualized by the lateVictorianandEdwardianrevival ofChinoiserieandJaponism[8]as witnessed in the 1890s vogue forWilliam Anderson's Japanese prints donated to theBritish Museumas well as in the influence ofwoodblock printson paintings byMonet,Degasandvan Gogh.[9]Direct literary models were available from a number of sources, includingF. V. Dickins's 1866Hyak nin is'shiu, or, Stanzas by a Century of Poets, Being Japanese Lyrical Odes,the first English-language version of theHyakunin Isshū,[10]a 13th-century anthology of 100 waka, the early 20th-century critical writings and poems ofSadakichi Hartmann,and contemporary French-language translations.[11]
The American poet Ezra Pound was introduced to the group in April 1909 and found their ideas close to his own.[12]In particular, Pound's studies of early European vernacular poetry had led him to an admiration of the condensed, direct expression that he detected in the writings ofArnaut Daniel,Dante,andGuido Cavalcanti,amongst others. For example, in his 1911–12 series of essaysI gather the limbs of Osiris,Pound writes of Daniel's line "pensar de lieis m'es repaus" ( "it rests me to think of her" ), from thecanzoneEn breu brizara'l temps braus:"You cannot get statement simpler than that, or clearer, or less rhetorical".[13]These criteria—directness, clarity and lack ofrhetoric—were to be amongst the defining qualities of Imagist poetry. Through his friendship withLaurence Binyon,Pound had already developed an interest inJapanese artby examiningNishiki-eprints at the British Museum, and he quickly became absorbed in the study of Japanese verse forms.[14]
In a 1915 article inLa France,French criticRemy de Gourmontdescribed the Imagists as descendants of the FrenchSymbolists.[15]Pound emphasised that influence in a 1928 letter to the French critic and translatorRené Taupin.He pointed out that Hulme was indebted to the Symbolist tradition, viaW. B. Yeats,Arthur Symonsand theRhymers' Clubgeneration of British poets andMallarmé.[16]Taupin concluded in his 1929 study that however great the divergence of technique and language "between the image of the Imagist and the 'symbol' of the Symbolists[,] there is a difference only of precision".[2]In 1915, Pound edited the poetry of another 1890s poet,Lionel Johnson.In his introduction, he wrote
No one has written purer imagism than [Johnson] has, in the line
Clear lie the fields, and fade into blue air,
It has a beauty like the Chinese.[17]
Early publications and statements of intent
editIn 1911, Pound introduced two other poets to the Eiffel Tower group: his former fiancée Hilda Doolittle, who by then was writing under her initials,H.D.,and H.D.'s future husbandRichard Aldington.These two were interested in exploring Greek poetic models, especiallySappho,an interest that Pound shared.[18]The compression of expression that they achieved by following the Greek example complemented the proto-Imagist interest in Japanese poetry, and, in 1912, during a meeting with them in the British Museum tea room, Pound told H.D. and Aldington that they wereImagistesand even appended the signatureH.D. Imagisteto some poems they were discussing.[19]
WhenHarriet Monroestarted herPoetrymagazine in 1911, she had asked Pound to act as foreign editor. In October 1912, he submitted thereto three poems each by H.D. and Aldington under theImagisterubric,[20]with a note describing Aldington as "one of the 'Imagistes'". This note, along with the appendix note ( "The Complete Poetical Works of T. E. Hulme" ) in Pound's bookRipostes(1912), are considered to be the first appearances of the word "Imagiste" (later anglicised to "Imagist" ) in print.[20]
Aldington's poems,Choricos,To a Greek Marble,andAu Vieux Jardin,were in the November issue ofPoetry,and H.D.'s,Hermes of the Ways,Priapus,andEpigram,appeared in the January 1913 issue, marking the beginning of the Imagism movement.[21]Poetry's April issue published Pound's haiku-like "In a Station of the Metro":
- The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
- Petals on a wet, black bough.[22]
The March 1913 issue ofPoetrycontainedA Few Don'ts by an Imagisteand the essay entitledImagismeboth written by Pound,[23]with the latter attributed to Flint. The latter contained this succinct statement of the group's position, which he had agreed with H.D. and Aldington:[24]
Pound's note opened with a definition of an image as "that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time". Pound goes on to state, "It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works".[26]His list of "don'ts" reinforced his three statements in "Imagism", while warning that they should not be considered as dogma but as the "result of long contemplation".[27]Taken together, these two texts comprised the Imagist programme for a return to what they saw as the best poetic practice of the past. F. S. Flint commented "we have never claimed to have invented the moon. We do not pretend that our ideas are original."[28]
The 1916 preface toSome Imagist Poetscomments "Imagismdoes not merely mean the presentation of pictures.Imagismrefers to the manner of presentation, not to the subject. "[29]
Des Imagistes
editDetermined to promote the work of the Imagists, and particularly of Aldington and H.D., Pound decided to publish an anthology under the titleDes Imagistes.It was first published inAlfred Kreymborg's little magazineThe Glebeand was later published in 1914 byAlbertand Charles Boni in New York and byHarold Monroat thePoetry Bookshopin London. It became one of the most important and influential English-language collections of modernist verse.[30]Included in the thirty-seven poems were ten poems by Aldington, seven by H.D., and six by Pound. The book also included work by Flint,Skipwith Cannell,Amy Lowell,William Carlos Williams,James Joyce,Ford Madox Ford,Allen UpwardandJohn Cournos.[31][32]
Pound's editorial choices were based on what he saw as the degree of sympathy that the writers displayed with Imagist precepts, rather than active participation in a group. Williams, based in the United States, had not participated in any of the discussions of the Eiffel Tower group. However, he and Pound had long been corresponding on the question of the renewal of poetry along similar lines. Ford was included at least partly because of his strong influence on Pound, as the younger poet made the transition from his earlier,Pre-Raphaelite-influenced style towards a harder, more modern way of writing. The anthology included the poemI Hear an Armyby James Joyce, which was sent to Pound by W. B. Yeats.[33]
Some Imagist Poets
editAn article on the history of Imagism was written by Flint and published inThe Egoistin May 1915. Pound disagreed with Flint's interpretation of events and the goals of the group, causing the two to cease contact with each other.[35]Flint emphasised the contribution of the Eiffel Tower poets, especiallyEdward Storer.Pound, who believed that the "Hellenic hardness" that he saw as the distinguishing quality of the poems of H.D. and Aldington was likely to be diluted by the "custard" of Storer, was to play no further direct role in the history of the Imagists. He went on to co-found theVorticistswith his friend, the painter and writerWyndham Lewis.[36]
Around this time, the American Imagist Amy Lowell moved to London, determined to promote her own work and that of the other Imagist poets. Lowell was a wealthy heiress fromBoston,whose brotherAbbott Lawrence Lowellwas President ofHarvard Universityfrom 1909 to 1933.[37]She was an enthusiastic champion of literary experiment who was willing to use her money to publish the group. Lowell was determined to change the method of selection from Pound's autocratic editorial attitude to a more democratic manner.[38]The outcome was a series of Imagist anthologies under the titleSome Imagist Poets.The first of these appeared in 1915, planned and assembled mainly by H.D. and Aldington. Two further issues, both edited by Lowell, were published in 1916 and 1917. These three volumes featured most of the original poets, plus the AmericanJohn Gould Fletcher,[39]but not Pound, who had tried to persuade Lowell to drop the Imagist name from her publications and who sardonically dubbed this phase of Imagism "Amygism".[40]
Lowell persuadedD. H. Lawrenceto contribute poems to the 1915 and 1916 volumes,[41]making him the only writer to publish as both a Georgian poet and an Imagist.Marianne Moorealso became associated with the group during this period.[42]WithWorld War Ias a backdrop, the times were not easy foravant-gardeliterary movements (Aldington, for example, spent much of the war at the front), and the 1917 anthology effectively marked the end of the Imagists as a movement.[43]
After Imagism
editIn 1929,Walter Lowenfelsjokingly suggested that Aldington should produce a new Imagist anthology.[44]Aldington, by now a successful novelist, took up the suggestion and enlisted the help of Ford and H.D. The result was theImagist Anthology 1930,edited by Aldington and including all the contributors to the four earlier anthologies with the exception of Lowell, who had died, Cannell, who had disappeared, and Pound, who declined. The appearance of this anthology initiated a critical discussion of the place of the Imagists in the history of 20th-century poetry.[45]
Of the poets who were published in the various Imagist anthologies, Joyce, Lawrence and Aldington are now primarily remembered and read as novelists. Marianne Moore, who was at most a fringe member of the group, carved out a unique poetic style of her own that retained an Imagist concern with compression of language.William Carlos Williamsdeveloped his poetic along distinctly American lines with his variablefootand a diction he claimed was taken "from the mouths of Polish mothers".[46]Both Pound and H.D. turned to long form poetry, but retained the hard edge to their language as an Imagist legacy. Most of the other members of the group are largely forgotten outside the context of Imagism.[47]
Legacy
editDespite the movement's short life, Imagism would deeply influence the course ofmodernist poetry in English.Richard Aldington, in his 1941 memoir, writes: "I think the poems of Ezra Pound, H.D., Lawrence, and Ford Madox Ford will continue to be read. And to a considerable extent T. S. Eliot and his followers have carried on their operations from positions won by the Imagists."[48]
On the other hand, the American poetWallace Stevensfound shortcomings in the Imagist approach: "Not all objects are equal. The vice of imagism was that it did not recognize this."[49] With its demand for hardness, clarity and precision and its insistence on fidelity to appearances coupled with its rejection of irrelevant subjective emotions Imagism had later effects that are demonstratable inT. S. Eliot'sPreludesandMorning at the Windowand in Lawrence's animal and flower pieces. The rejection of conventional verse forms in the nineteen-twenties owed much to the Imagists' repudiation of theGeorgian Poetrystyle.[50]
Imagism, which had made free verse a discipline and a legitimate poetic form, influenced a number of poetry circles and movements. Its influence can be seen clearly in the work of theObjectivist poets,[51]who came to prominence in the 1930s under the auspices of Pound and Williams. The Objectivists worked mainly in free verse. Clearly linking Objectivism's principles with Imagism's,Louis Zukofskyinsisted, in his introduction to the 1931 Objectivist issue ofPoetry,on writing "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." Zukofsky was a major influence on theLanguage poets,[52]who carried the Imagist focus on formal concerns to a high level of development. In his seminal 1950 essayProjective Verse,Charles Olson,the theorist of theBlack Mountain poets,wrote "One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception",[53]his credo derived from and supplemented the Imagists.[54]
Amongthe Beats,Gary SnyderandAllen Ginsbergin particular were influenced by the Imagist emphasis on Chinese and Japanese poetry.[citation needed]Williams also had a strong effect on the Beat poets, encouraging poets likeLew Welchand writing an introduction for the book publication of Ginsberg'sHowl(1955).
Citations
edit- ^T.S. Eliot: "Thepoint de repère,usually and conveniently taken as the starting-point of modern poetry, is the group denominated 'imagists' in London about 1910. "Lecture,Washington University in St. Louis,June 6, 1953.
- ^abTaupin, René (1929).L'Influence du symbolism francais sur la poesie Americaine (de 1910 a 1920).Paris: Champion. Translation (1985) by William Pratt and Anne Rich. New York: AMS.
- ^Davidson (1997), pp. 11–13
- ^Brooker (1996), p. 48
- ^McGuinness (1998), xii.
- ^Crunden (1993), 271
- ^Williams (2002), p. 16
- ^Kita (2000), p. 179
- ^Kita (2000), pp. 179–180
- ^Ewick, David. "Strange Attractors: Ezra Pound and the Invention of Japan, II".Essays and Studies in British and American Literature,Tokyo Woman's Christian University, 2018
- ^Kita (2000), p. 180
- ^Moody (2007), pp. 180, 222
- ^Cookson (1975), p. 43
- ^Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard (2011).Modernism and the Museum: Asian, African and Pacific Art and the London Avant Garde.Oxford University Press, pp. 103–164.ISBN978-0-19-959369-9.Also see Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard (2011)."The Transcultural Roots of Modernism: Imagist Poetry, Japanese Visual Culture, and the Western Museum System".Modernism/modernity18:1, pp. 27–42; andCosmopolitanism and Modernism: How Asian Visual Culture Shaped Early Twentieth Century Art and Literature in London.London University School of Advanced Study.March 2012.
- ^Preface toSome Imagist Poets(1916). Constable and Company.
- ^Woon-Ping Chin Holaday (Summer 1978). "From Ezra Pound to Maxine Hong Kingston: Expressions of Chinese Thought in American Literature".MELUS.5(2): 15–24.doi:10.2307/467456.JSTOR467456.
- ^Ming, Xie (1998), p. 80
- ^Ayers (2004), p. 2
- ^King; Pearson (1979), p. 18
- ^abMonroe, Harriet (1938).A Poet's Life.Macmillan.
- ^"General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay".Poetry Foundation.March 20, 2018.RetrievedMarch 21,2018.
- ^DuPlessis, Rachel Blau (2001).Genders, Races, and Religious Cultures in Modern American Poetry, 1908–1934.Cambridge University Press. Excerpted in "On 'In a Station of the Metro'"(Modern American Poetry). Retrieved on August 29, 2010
- ^Pound (1913), pp. 200–206
- ^Geiger (1956), p. 144
- ^Elder (1998), pp. 72, 94
- ^Pound (1918). "A Retrospect". Reprinted in Kolocotroni et al. (1998), p. 374
- ^Pound (1974), p. 12
- ^F. S. Flint letter to J.C. Squire, January 29, 1917.
- ^Some Imagist Poets(1916). Constable and Company.
- ^Edgerly Firchow, Peter; Evelyn Scherabon Firchow; Bernfried Nugel (2002).Reluctant Modernists: Aldous Huxley and Some Contemporaries.Transaction Books, p. 32.
- ^Thacker (2018), pp. 5–6
- ^Pound (1914), pp. 5–6
- ^Ellmann (1959), p. 350
- ^Bradshaw; Munich (2002), p. xvii
- ^Pondrom (1969), pp. 557–586
- ^Page, A.; Cowley, J.; Daly, M.; Vice, S.; Watkins, S.; Morgan, L.; Sillars, S.; Poster, J.; Griffiths, T. (1993)."The Twentieth Century".The Year's Work in English Studies.72(1): 361–421.doi:10.1093/ywes/72.1.361.RetrievedJuly 17,2018.
- ^"A(bbott) Lawrence Lowell".Harvard University.Archived fromthe originalon July 17, 2018.RetrievedJuly 16,2018.
- ^Preface toSome Imagist Poets(1915). Reprinted in Kolocotroni et al (1998), p. 268
- ^Hughes, Glenn (1931).Imagism & The Imagists: A Study in Modern Poetry.Stanford University Press.
- ^Moody (2007), p. 224
- ^Lawrence (1979), p. 394
- ^Geiger (1956), pp. 140, 145
- ^Moody (2007), pp. 224–225
- ^Aldington (1984), p. 103
- ^Geiger (1956), pp. 139–147
- ^Bercovitch; Patell (1994), p. 35
- ^Geiger (1956), p. 139
- ^Smith, Richard. "Richard Aldington". Twayne, 1977. p. 23.ISBN978-0-8057-6691-2
- ^Enck (1964), p. 11
- ^Allott, Kenneth (ed.) (1950).The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse.Penguin Books. (See introductory note.)
- ^Sloan (1987), pp. 29–43
- ^Stanley (1995), pp. 186–189
- ^Olson (1966), p. 17
- ^Riddel (1979), pp. 159–188
Sources
edit- Aldington, Richard;Gates, Norman (1984).Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters.University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press
- Aldington, Richard (1941).Life For Life's Sake.New York: Viking Press
- Ayers, David (2004).H. D., Ezra Pound and Imagism,inModernism: A Short Introduction.Blackwell Publishers.ISBN978-1-4051-0854-6
- DuPlessis, Rachel Blau(1986).H.D.: The Career of That Struggle.The Harvester Press.ISBN0-7108-0548-9
- Bercovitch, Sacvan;Patell, Cyrus RK. (1994).The Cambridge History of American Literature.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-49733-6
- Bradshaw, Melissa; Munich, Adrienne (2002).Selected Poems of Amy Lowell.New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.ISBN978-0-8135-3128-1
- Brooker, Jewel Spears (1996).Mastery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism.University of Massachusetts Press.ISBN1-55849-040-X
- Carpenter, Humphrey(1988).A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.ISBN978-0-395-41678-5
- Cookson, William(ed) (1975).Selected Prose, 1909–1965.London: New Directions Publishing.ISBN978-0-8112-0574-0
- Crunden, Robert (1993).American Salons: Encounters with European Modernism, 1885–1917.Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-1950-6569-5
- Davidson, Michael(1997).Ghostlier Demarcations: Modern Poetry and the Material Word.University of California Press.ISBN0-520-20739-4
- Elder, R. Bruce(1998).The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American Tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and Charles Olson.Wilfrid Laurier University Press.ISBN0-88920-275-3
- Ellmann, Richard(1959).James Joyce.Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Enck, John (1964).Wallace Stevens: Images and Judgments.Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press
- Geiger, Don (1956). "Imagism; the New Poetry Forty Years Later".Prairie Schooner,volume 30, No. 2.JSTOR40625011
- Jones, Peter (ed.) (1972).Imagist Poetry.Penguin.ISBN978-0-1419-1314-8
- Kenner, Hugh(1975).The Pound Era.Faber and Faber.ISBN0-571-10668-4
- King, Michael; Pearson, Norman (1979).H. D., and Ezra Pound, End to Torment: A Memoir of Ezra Pound.New York: New Directions, 1979.ISBN978-0-8112-0720-1
- Kita, Yoshiko (2000). "Ezra Pound and Haiku: Why Did Imagists Hardly Mention Basho?".Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics,volume 29, No. 3.JSTOR24726040
- Kolocotroni, Vassiliki; Goldman, Jane; Taxidou, Olga (1998).Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents.University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-45074-2
- Lawrence, D. H.(1979).The Letters of D. H. Lawrence.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Martin, Wallace (1970). "The Sources of the Imagist Aesthetic".PMLA,volume 85, No. 2.JSTOR1261393
- McGuinness, Patrick(1998).T. E. Hulme: Selected Writings.Fyfield Books, Carcanet Press.ISBN1-85754-362-9(pp. xii–xiii)
- Ming, Xie (1998).Ezra Pound and the Appropriation of Chinese Poetry: Cathay, Translation, and Imagism.New York: Routledge.ISBN978-0-8153-2623-6
- Moody, A. David (2007).Ezra Pound: Poet. A Portrait of the Man and His Work. I: The Young Genius 1885–1920.Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-957146-8
- Olson, Charles(1966).Selected Writings.London: New Directions Publishing.ISBN978-0-8112-0335-7
- Pondrom, Cyrena (1969). "Selected Letters from H. D. to F. S. Flint: A Commentary on the Imagist Period".Contemporary Literature,volume 10, issue 4.JSTOR1207696
- Pound, Ezra (1974) [June 1914]. "How I Began". In Grace Schulman (ed.).Ezra Pound: A Collection of Criticism.New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.ISBN0-07-055634-2
- Pound, Ezra (1970).Pound/Joyce: The Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce.Edited by Forrest Read. New York: New Directions Publishing.ISBN0-8112-0159-7
- Pound, Ezra (ed.) (1914).Des Imagistes.New York: Albert and Charles Boni.
- Pound, Ezra (March 1913)."A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste".Poetry.I(6)
- Riddel, Joseph (1979). "Decentering the Image: The 'Project' of 'American' Poetics?".Boundary 2,volume 8, issue 1.JSTOR303146
- Sloan, De Villo (1987). "The Decline of American Postmodernism".SubStance,University of Wisconsin Press, volume 16, issue 3.JSTOR3685195
- Stanley, Sandra (1995). "Louis Zukofsky and the Transformation of a Modern American Poetics".South Atlantic Review,volume 60.JSTOR3200737
- Sullivan, J. P. (ed.) (1970).Ezra Pound.Penguin Critical Anthologies Series.ISBN0-14-080033-6
- Thacker, Andrew (2018).The Imagist Poets.Tavistock: Northcote House Publishers.ISBN978-0-7463-1002-1
- Wącior, Sławomir (2007).Explaining Imagism: The Imagist Movement in Poetry and Art.Edwin Mellen Press.ISBN0773454276
- Williams, Louise Blakeney (2002).Modernism and the Ideology of History: Literature, Politics, and the Past.Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-81499-5
External links
edit- Some Imagist anthologiesat theModernist Journals Project
- Bibliography of Japan in English-Language Verse
- J.T. Barbareseet al.:"On 'In a Station of the Metro'" at Modern American Poetry