Imagism Coté Fall 2015

What is it? Imagism took place during the Modernist period. Definition: Imagism: An English and American Poetry movement that flourished between 1908 and The Imagists used precise, clearly presented images in their works. They also used common, everyday speech and aimed for conciseness, concrete imagery, and the creation of new rhythms. “Making it new by cutting it down…”

Influences Poets reacted against genteel poetry, which they saw as sentimental, soft-edged, and emotionally dishonest. Poetry that was considered genteel was “very well-behaved.” These poets avoided controversial and realistic subject matter like sex or industrialization. Genteel poetry tended to consist of short, inoffensive, traditional verse about inward feelings, written in a deliberately purified, rather vague, "poetic" language.

Concise, Concrete Imagery Concise means “short and to the point.” Concrete is hard and immovable, so “concrete imagery” is imagery that is strong and heavy, with little room for ambiguous meaning.

NON-Example Take for example, Richard Watson Gilder's “The Woods that Bring the Sunset Near” The wind from out of the west is blowing The homeward-wandering cows are lowing, Dark grow the pine woods, dark and drear, — The woods that bring the sunset near. When o'er wide seas the sun declines, Far off its fading glory shines, Far off, sublime, and full of fear — The pine woods bring the sunset near. This house that looks to east, to west, This dear one, is our home, our rest; Yonder the stormy sea, and here The woods that bring the sunset near.

NON-Example This poem employs weak, vague imagery such as “Far off, sublime, and full of fear — The pine woods bring the sunset near” and “Far off its fading glory shines.” NOTHING CONTROVERSIAL OR DIRECT SEEN...

Example of Imagism In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. -Ezra Pound This poem is concise and concrete, focusing intensely on one image.

Ezra Pound- The Father of the Movement: Poets should strive… – To use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the presentation. – To use “An 'Image' is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complexity in an instant of time.... “ – To create “the presentation of such a 'complex' instantaneously which gives the sense of sudden liberation; that sense of freedom from time limits and space limits; that sense of sudden growth, which we experience in the greatest works of art.”

More from Advice Pound – “It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works...” – “Use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not reveal something.” – “Go in fear of abstractions. Do not retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose.”