Notes about "Imagism"

Quotes:

"No ideas but in things." -- William Carlos Williams

"Not ideas about the thing but the thing itself." -- Wallace Stevens

"Make nothing of it [the thing] but the thing itself. Because there may not be meaning, don't insist on it."

"A poem is a small machine made out of words." -- William Carlos Williams

"The image presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time."

General Notes:

The Imagists were a group of poets active in England and America between 1909 and 1918.

The name came from the French title, Des Imagistes, given to their first anthology.

Ezra Pound, H. D., and F. S. Flint collectively formulated a set of principles as to treatment, diction, and rhyme.

From Pound's quote above, he thought the intellectual component was borne by visual images, while the emotional component was borne by auditory images.

From Amy Lowell:

The major objectives of the movement were to:

Central Features of Imagism:

From NAAL 1914-1945 (Volume D) Introduction:

"Rather than describing something -- an object or situation -- and then generalizing about it, imagist poets attempted to present the object directly, avoiding the ornate diction and complex but predictable verse forms of traditional poetry. Any significance to be derived from the image had to appear inherent in its spare, clean presentation. 'Go in fear of abstraction,' Pound wrote. Even the rules of grammar seemed artificial; hence this new poetry tended to work in disconnected fragments." -- (NAAL, Volume D, page 1282)

"These spare, elegant lyrics were among the first important products of the 'imagist movement': poems devoid of explanation and declamation, unrhymed and lacking regular beat, depending on the power of an image to arrest attention and convey emotion." -- (NAAL, Volume D, page 1302)

"Freud's theory of the unconscious and the disguised ways in which it reaches surface expression accorded well with H.D.'s understanding of how the unexplained images in a poem could be significant; the images were coded personal meanings." -- (NAAL, Volume D, page 1303)

From the NAAL 1914-1945 (volume 2, shorter 7th ed.) Introduction:

p. 712 -- "Generalization, abstraction, and high-flown writing might conceal rather than convey the read."

p. 712 -- "Thus a key formal characteristic typical of high modernist works . . . is its construction out of fragments -- fragments of myth or history, fragments of experience or perception, fragments of previous artistic works."

pp. 712-713 -- "Compared with earlier writing, modernist literature is notable for what it omits: the explanations, interpretations, / connections, summaries, and distancing that provide continuity, perspective, and security in traditional literature."

p. 713 -- "It will suggest rather than assert, making use of symbols and images instead of statements."

p. 713 -- " . . . the experience of reading will be challenging and difficult.  Faced with the task of intuiting connections left unstated, the reader of a modernist work is often said to participate in the actual work of making the poem or story."

From Willa Cather's Headnote:

p. 727 -- "'suggestion rather than enumeration' was another way she described her goal."

Other Notes:

Later on, Robert Bly and other poets would come to be called "Deep Image" poets. See NAAL, Volume E, and other sources.

"H. D.'s imagist poetry, for which she was known during her lifetime, represents the imagist credo with its vivid phrasing, compelling imagery, free verse, short poetic line, and avoidance of abstraction and generalization." -- NAAL, Volume D, page 1304

Imagist poets from NAAL include: