IMAGISM

Originated in 1912 Representatives- Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell etc. What?- Name given to a movt. in poetry aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. In revolt of Romantic excess.

The Imagists advise: 1. Direct treatment of the ‘thing’, whether subjective or objective. 2. To use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the presentation. 3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.

Pound characterises an image as It is 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. 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. Don't mix an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequatesymbol. Go in fear of abstractions. Do not retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose. It should be hard & definite. Don't be descriptive.

In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. -Ezra Pound, 1913

Pablo Picasso: Girl with Mandolin Paris, late spring1910 Cubism: Ideogrammic