Movements
Imagism
Also Known As Amygism A derisive coinage by Ezra Pound after Amy Lowell took over the movement's direction and anthology series in 1914; not a neutral alternate name.
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A movement in early twentieth century English-language poetry, centered in London from about 1912, that rejected ornamental late-Victorian abstraction in favor of precise, concrete imagery and economical language. Ezra Pound organized the circle around a small set of 1913 principles: direct treatment of the subject, the elimination of any word that does not contribute to the presentation, and composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than the metronome. Its core members included H.D., Richard Aldington, F.S. Flint and T.E. Hulme. When Amy Lowell took over the movement's direction and its anthology series after 1914, Pound derisively renamed it "Amygism" and distanced himself from it. Imagism is widely described as the first organized movement of English-language literary modernism.
Facts
Period, From (Year) Period, To (Year)Marks the close of the movement's core, organized phase (the last of the Some Imagist Poets anthologies); individual members continued writing in an Imagist idiom afterward. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated Authors
Organized and named the Imagist movement in London around 1912, urging a poetry of precise, concrete images over ornamental abstraction.
Associated With
The Cinquain, Forms Wikipedia describes the American cinquain as "akin in spirit" to Imagism, not as an Imagist-affiliated form.
Sources
1. Imagism (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)lead sectionQuote, lead section
Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favoured precision of imagery and clear, sharp language.
1. Imagism (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Active YearsQuote, Active Years
in 1912, during a meeting with them in the British Museum tea room, Pound told H.D. and Aldington that they were Imagistes
Amy Lowell (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Career sectionQuote, Career section
She lived as a socialite and travelled widely, turning to poetry in 1902 (aged 28) after being inspired by a performance of Eleonora Duse in Europe.
Amy Lowell (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Career section, on the Amygism riftQuote, Career section, on the Amygism rift
Pound threatened to sue her for bringing out her three-volume series Some Imagist Poets, and thereafter derisively called the American Imagists the 'Amygist' movement.
Cinquain (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Associated With: The Cinquain, American cinquain sectionView the Source Ezra Pound (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Associated Authors: Ezra Pound, Poetry magazine, Ripostes, Imagism sectionQuote, Associated Authors: Ezra Pound, Poetry magazine, Ripostes, Imagism section
While in the British Museum tearoom one afternoon with Doolittle and Aldington, Pound edited one of Doolittle's poems and wrote 'H.D. Imagiste' underneath; he described this later as the founding of a movement in poetry, Imagisme.
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