Imagism

Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that rejected the sentiment and artifice of Romantic and Victorian poetry as well as the contemporary Georgian poets in favour of precision of imagery in clear, sharp language. Group publication of work under the Imagist name in magazines and in four anthologies appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured writing by many of the most significant figures in Modernist poetry in English, as well as a number of other Modernist figures who were to be prominent in fields other than poetry.

Legacy

Despite being so short-lived as a movement, Imagism was to prove to be deeply influential on the course of modernist poetry in English. This influence can be seen clearly in the work of the Objectivist poets, who came to prominence in the 1930s under the auspices of Pound and Williams. The Objectivists worked mainly in free verse. Clearly linking Objectivism's principles with Imagism's, Zukovsky insisted, in his introduction to the 1931 Objectivist issue of Poetry, on writing "which is the detail, not mirage, of seeing, of thinking with the things as they exist, and of directing them along a line of melody."

Related Topics:
Objectivist poets - 1930s - 1931 - Poetry

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The influence of Imagism can be seen in a number of 1950s poetic groups and movements, especially the Beat generation, the Black Mountain poets, and others associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. In his seminal 1950 essay, Projectivist Verse, Charles Olson, the theorist of the Black Mountain group, wrote "ONE PERCEPTION MUST IMMEDIATELY AND DIRECTLY LEAD TO A FURTHER PERCEPTION", a credo that derives directly from the Imagists.

Related Topics:
1950s - Beat generation - Black Mountain poets - San Francisco Renaissance - 1950

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Among the Beats, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg in particular were influenced by the Imagist emphasis on Chinese and Japanese poetry. William Carlos Williams was another who had a strong impact on the Beat poets, encouraging poets like Lew Welch and writing an introduction for the book publication of Ginsberg's Howl. One poet associated with the Objectivist group, Louis Zukofsky, was a major influence on the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, who carried the Imagist focus on formal concerns to a high level of development. Another, Basil Bunting, was a key figure in the early development of the British Poetry Revival, a loose movement that also absorbed the influence of the San Francisco Renaissance poets.

Related Topics:
Chinese - Japanese poetry - Lew Welch - Howl - Louis Zukofsky - L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E - Basil Bunting - British Poetry Revival - San Francisco Renaissance

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