Matthew Gonzalez
Discussion 102 (Friday 11-12)
October 28th, 2016
Imagism
Imagism was a literary movement in the early 20th century dedicated to clarity of expression using precise, visual images. It is thought to be the first organized literary movement of Modernism in the English language, and thus served as a beginning to the Modernist movement and continued to influence later literary movements. Imagism rejected the prior Romantic and Victorian poetic values of sentiment and verbosity, and instead urged poets to return to Classical styles of direct descriptions, efficiency with words, and experimentation with verse. As such, Imagist poems use free verse, so their poems have no consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or rhythm, and so follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Imagism began when a poet named Ezra Pound, and his friends Hilda Doolittle and Richard Aldington, began meeting regularly to discuss art. They often examined Japanese poetry and art, and also commonly criticized the ideas of abstraction, over-description, and romanticism. In 1912, the three decided to begin a poetry movement that they called Imagisme. As Pound later wrote in an essay, Imagism would revolve around three principles: "Direct treatment of the 'thing'", using "absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation", and composing like a "musical phrase" and not like a "metronome". The development of these principles was heavily influenced by the Japanese haiku, a form of poetry that has nontraditional verse and removed unnecessary verbiage. Pound later published these three principles in his Ripostes, a collection of 25 Imagist poems, in 1913. This publication marked the first time the word Imagisme was used publicly.
The quintessential Imagist poem, written by Pound and published in a literary magazine in 1913, is In a Station of the Metro.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
The poem is exactly 14 words, showing both Pound's dedication to conciseness and his fascination with brief Japanese poems like haikus. It lacks a verb, thus focusing the attention on the pure image rather than the setup of the poem. The poem also lacks any verbose expression of sentiment; instead, it leaves it open to the reader to link, and then interpret the significance of the linking, faces and petals. It was likely inspired by this Japanese ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Harunobo.
Imagism was considered rather radical at the time, as it so wholeheartedly abandoned the accepted poetic values in favor of a style that critics considered to be disorganized and even rebellious. It was also unconventional in that many female poets rose to prominence during this movement. The most famous of which was Hilda Doolittle, one of the founders, better known by her pen name H.D. Many of her poems dealt with subjects such as psychoanalysis (as she was a good friend of Sigmund Freud), and her bisexuality (which she was open and unapologetic about), further expanding the uniqueness of Imagism as it delved into other simultaneous new movements.
This movement by itself was quite short-lived; by 1917, the last official Imagist anthology was published, effectively ending the movement. It is thought that the looming imminence of World War I contributed to this decline. However, Imagism, as one of the major kickstarters into the more broad Modernism movement, had a profound influence on modernist poetry. Famous modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Williams Carlos Williams were clearly inspired by Imagism, as seen by their use of precise, direct imagery. Additionally, the effects of Imagism are clear in the works of Federico García Lorca's Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude. In that poem, there is a strong emphasis on the precise depiction of visual images, experimentation with nontraditional verse forms, and a lack of heavy-handed expression and analysis of sentiment. It is clear that despite only being an official movement for a few years, Imagism helped to shape modernist poetry.
Discussion Questions
- How did the ideals of Imagist poetry translate into the works of the novels we have read, such as Their Eyes were Watching God and Passing?
- Social issues and literary movements are often linked. (For example, the disillusionment that many experienced after World War I led to the formation of the Lost Generation and contributed to the literary themes that were common to the Lost Generation writers.) What were some potential societal issues that Imagism, as a precursor/beginning to Modernism, hoped to address?
Works Cited
Barbarese, J. T. "On "In a Station of the
Metro"" Www.english.illinois.edu.
Modern American Poetry, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Barbarese, J. T. "On Lowell, Pound, and Imagism." Www.english.illinois.edu. Modern
American Poetry, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
"A Brief Guide to Imagism." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, May 2004. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
Hughes, Glenn. Imagism
& the Imagists; a Study in Modern Poetry. New York: Humanities, 1960.
Print.
"Modernist Journals Project." Modjourn.org. Modernist Journals Project, 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.
I think your post is really interesting, especially since imagism is not a often talked about artistic movement. Art tends to have cyclic movements in which old styles and techniques are applied to the present era. For example, neoclassical art forms that heavily drew upon ancient Greek and Roman architecture became a prominent artistic style during the mid-1800 to the 19th century. I think in some ways inspirations taken from Japanese art are reminiscent of impressionism. Monet would take a lot of ideas from Japanese culture for his water lilies paintings. Maybe imagism is a recycling of ideas from Japanese culture, but seeing it in a new light. Instead of capturing the fleeing moments of light as with impressionism, the imagism artists took to be very precise and simple in their approach to their subjects.
ReplyDeleteI find it quite intriguing how imagism is both "experimentation" but also a form of direct, well outlined creation of an idea, both represented in free verse but also, as you call it, "precise"; it seems like a paradox and thus in itself is a perfect example of the modernist style of breaking with tradition. Imagism fits into no bounds.
ReplyDeleteImagism is also interesting in how it combines with music, the Japanese haiku, art, and poetry. It appears to embody all aspects of art, both visual and emotional.
Good job on the article!
I find your description of Imagism both informative and contradictory. While imagism focused on clear and to the point imagery, I still find the sample poem you include incredibly confusing and complex. Likewise, I personally don't find any of the imagery in Garcia Lorca's "Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude" poem to be straightforward, as all of the seemingly "straightforward" imagery has some greater and more convoluted implication towards modern life and society. While, my point of view probably lies in my greater and perpetual misunderstanding of poetry, I do think Imagism falls into the larger pool of modernist poetry that deals with abstraction and do not see much difference between Imagism and Abstraction. I'm probably wrong though. Thanks for your blog!
ReplyDeleteAnytime I think about Imagism I feel a sense of ugh! because of Ezra Pound. Young Ezra I like, old Ezra, not so much. Love the art not the artist, they say. He did write some beautiful poetry and helped the careers of many authors I like. Anyway, good job on the blog post.
ReplyDeleteI like the Ezra Pound poem that you quoted. It's very powerful to juxtapose two images like that without any other language in between them. It is a brief glimpse that leaves the reader wanting to know more.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was intriguing. I loved the quote about composing like a musical phrase, not like a metronome. I feel like a lot of poetry that had been popular up until this point had been "like a metronome," robotic and straightforward. But, at this point, poets were becoming more descriptive, artistic, and creative. The piece you inserted was quite characteristic of this because it asks for more thought on the readers side. It is not straightforward, it does not answer the question of "why" but rather asks the reader to think about it more.
ReplyDeleteImagism, as you explained, can be characterized by a shift away from the Romantic style of writing in favor of something a lot less verbose. This translates quite well into Their Eyes and Passing, where the narrative voice is a lot more succinct and efficient with words than one you would find in a Dickens novel, for example. Additionally, I feel like Imagism can be translated quite well through visual art and can be seen as a parallel to Cubism, in which images are stark compared to the flowery paintings of the Romantic period. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how imagism gives the reader the power and responsibility to interpret the piece of artwork or text. I really enjoyed this blog post because it gives us throughout this class guidance and a better understanding of the poems we have read and discussed that lack structure or resolution.
ReplyDeleteImagism is so interesting to me because in an attempt to make poems clear and concise, it leaves so much more to our interpretation as readers. This, for me, ends up making understanding the text much more difficult than if the speaker had offered a glimpse of his own interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic of imagism and your exploration of it because I think it speaks a lot to our stuggle with being modern now, in our lives in addition to modernism in the early 20th century. Now we talk about how readings are few and far between and that the attention spans of these readers are much shorter. In your discussion of imagism the conciseness serves a literary and aesthetic meaningful purpose, but thinking of this poem as a millennial makes me think about this idea of short attention span and the conciseness we seek in everything from messages to news sources. Just thought I would add that comment to bring it to modern relevance :)
ReplyDeleteI found the inspiration of imagism coming from the Japanese language incredibly interesting. The Japanese language itself is very clear cut and concise. There is never ambiguity in the sound of the word, unlike a lot of the romance languages (French and Spanish for example). In french many of the phonetics are silent depending on where the fall in the structure of the sentence, however in Japanese each word is clear and concise. The language is spelled exactly how it is sound. This is exactly how the idea of free verse works. The poetry flows like and imitates normal speech.
ReplyDelete