Imagism

                                   Imagism 

   Name given to a movement in poetry, originating in 1912 and
   represented by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others, aiming at clarity
   of expression through the use of precise visual images. In the early
   period often written in the French form Imagisme.


                                   IMAGIST,

   A group of American and English poets whose poetic
   program was formulated about 1912 by Ezra Pound--in
   conjunction with fellow poets Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Richard
   Aldington, and F.S. Flint--and was inspired by the critical views of
   T.E. Hulme, in revolt against the careless thinking and
   Romantic optimism he saw prevailing.

   The Imagists wrote succinct verse of dry clarity and hard outline in
   which an exact visual image made a total poetic statement. Imagism was
   a successor to the French Symbolist movement, but, whereas
   Symbolism had an affinity with music, Imagism sought analogy with
   sculpture. In 1914 Pound turned to Vorticism, and Amy Lowell largely
   took over leadership of the group. Among others who wrote Imagist
   poetry were John Gould Fletcher and Harriet Monroe; and Conrad Aiken,
   Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, D.H. Lawrence, and T.S. Eliot were
   influenced by it in their own poetry.
   
   The four Imagist anthologies (Des Imagistes, 1914; Some Imagists,
   1915, 1916, 1917), and the magazines Poetry (from 1912) and The Egoist
   (from 1914), in the United States and England, respectively, published
   the work of a dozen Imagist poets.

From an Imagist manifesto:

1.	To use the language of common speech, but to employ the exact 
word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.

2.	We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better 
expressed in free verse than in conventional forms. In poetry, a new 
cadence means a new idea.

3.	Absolute freedom in the choice of subject.

4.	To present an image. We are not a school of painters, but we 
believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in 
vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this 
reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real 
difficulties of his art.

5.      To produce a poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor
indefinite. 

6.	Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very 
essence of poetry.