Imagism

Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century <a href="/facts/Poetry/ylGarm6p">poetry</a> that favored precision of <a href="/facts/Imagery/RPEVF6kX">imagery</a> and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized <a href="/facts/Literary_modernism/LjKIS6jH">modernist</a> literary movement in the English language. Imagism has been termed "a succession of creative moments" rather than a continuous or sustained period of development. The French academic <a href="/facts/Ren%25C3%25A9_Taupin/JDj6CHU5">René Taupin</a> remarked that "it is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine, nor even as a poetic school, but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles".
The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of <a href="/facts/Romantic_poetry/fUrslhAh">Romantic</a> and <a href="/facts/Victorian_literature/rpRjD8aQ">Victorian poetry</a>. In contrast to the contemporary <a href="/facts/Georgian_poets/I797rpY0">Georgian poets</a>, who were generally content to work within that tradition, Imagists called for a return to more <a href="/facts/Classicism/U2IrVJ6P">Classical</a> values, such as directness of presentation, economy of language, and a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms; Imagists used <a href="/facts/Free_verse/BcFPQDxl">free verse</a>. A characteristic feature of the form is its attempt to isolate a single image to reveal its essence. This mirrors contemporary developments in <a href="/facts/Avant-garde/6ofnXfo4">avant-garde</a> art, especially <a href="/facts/Cubism/wmpXU7Tn">Cubism</a>. Although these poets isolate objects through the use of what the American poet <a href="/facts/Ezra_Pound/KdtpHKa7">Ezra Pound</a> called "luminous details", Pound's <a href="/facts/Ideogrammic_method/r1Lw5PA4">ideogrammic method</a> of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an <a href="/facts/Abstraction/p7l9eHGd">abstraction</a> is similar to Cubism's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.
Imagist publications appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured works by many of the most prominent modernist figures in <a href="/facts/Modernist_poetry_in_English/scP0EQ7s">poetry</a> and other fields, including Pound, <a href="/facts/H.D./zIAfcSDA">H.D.</a> (Hilda Doolittle), <a href="/facts/Amy_Lowell/Y0B2j4ST">Amy Lowell</a>, <a href="/facts/Ford_Madox_Ford/UzpsG0uh">Ford Madox Ford</a>, <a href="/facts/William_Carlos_Williams/qDnwS1or">William Carlos Williams</a>, <a href="/facts/F._S._Flint/WuECwsd5">F. S. Flint</a>, and <a href="/facts/T._E._Hulme/ey4uFlCq">T. E. Hulme</a>. The Imagists were centered in London, with members from Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. Somewhat unusually for the time, a number of women writers were major Imagist figures.

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Imagism