Imagism

Imagism

Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes. It grew out of the Symbolist movement and was initially led by Ezra Pound, who, inspired by the criticism of T. E. Hulme (1883–1917), formulated its credo c. 1912; Hilda Doolittle was also among the founders. Around 1914 Amy Lowell largely took over leadership of the group. Imagism influenced the works of Conrad Aiken, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, D. H. Lawrence, Wallace Stevens, and others.

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Imagism 

a modernist trend in English and American literature from 1910 to the early 1920’s. Its initiators and theorists were the English philosopher T. Hulme and the American poet E. Pound. They were joined by American poetesses A. Lowell and H. Doolittle, the American poets W. C. Williams and J. G. Fletcher, and the Englishmen F. M. Ford, D. H. Lawrence, and R. Aldington; their paths subsequently diverged.

The imagists, combining the philosophy of institutionalism and the formal theories of French symbolism, glorified nature and captured fleeting impressions in their poetry; they were fascinated with the play of rhythms and colors, accentuated the self-contained, laconic, “pure” image, and cultivated free verse. A reaction to the ornamentality and false beauty of the imitators of romanticism, imagism marked the transition to the forms of contemporary English and American poetry.

In Russia, the imaginist poets shared certain imagist ideas.

REFERENCE

Kashkin, I. “Tvorchestvo amerikanskikh poetov imazhistov.” Interna-tsional’naia literatura, 1937, no. 2

B. A. GILENSON