Imagism was born in England and America in the early twentieth century as a reactionary movement against passionate and excessive Romanticism and Victorian poetry. Imagism emphasized simplicity, clarity of expression and precision using exact visual images. T.E. Hulme, English philosopher and poet, in his essay “Romanticism and classicism”, (1908) stressed on accurate presentation of the subject with no excess of verbiage. According to him the language of poetry should be visual and concrete and the images in poetry should not be a mere decoration but the very essence. A poem should present concrete details and be image-focused like the poems of Greek lyricists and Japanese Haiku poets.
The imagists used free verse without any fixed meter and
did not use unnecessary digressions and moral reflections. They adopted a
casual and calm tone without sentimental exaggeration. They focused on a single
“hard, dry image.” They believed that there are no ideas but things. Images
give meaning to the poem. Language is used to convey vivid, precise images to
the reader. They used images with “simple language and great focus.” They did
not use superfluous words and they treated the subject directly rather than
passively.
The famous American poet, Ezra Pound adopted Hulme’s ideas
on poetry in 1912 and he introduced the word “Imagism” first in the literary
world. In November 1912 Pound published Hulme’s complete poetical works. According
to Pound, an image is an emotional and intellectual complex in an instant of
time. It gives a sense of liberation from the time and space limits. In his essay “A few don’ts by an Imagiste”
published in “Poetry” (March 1913), Pound stated three principles: 1) Direct
treatment of thing whether subjective or objective 2) To use no word that does
not contribute to the presentation. 3) to compose in sequence of the musical
phrase, not in sequence of metrical division. In 1914 Pound assembled the poems
of Imagist poets like William Carlos Williams, Richard Aldington, James Joyce,
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and Amy Lowell under the title” Des Imagistes”.
But later differences arose among these writers. Amy Lowell
criticized Pound for his too myopic view of poetry and assumed the leadership
of this movement from 1915 to 1917 and published three anthologies with the
same title” Some Imagist poets.” Pound named his new Imagist poetry as
“Vorticism” defining that the image is not an idea but a radiant cluster or
vortex. After 1917 the Imagist movement gradually became absorbed into the
modernist poetry. Still, we can see traces of this movement in modern poets.
Here are a few examples of Imagist poems for better
understanding of the Imagist poets. In His poem “In a station of the metro”,
Pound used just fourteen words to show the unstable and fleeting status of
crowds in a metro station. They are compared to petals on a wet black bough. The
poet used the word “apparition” to show the strange appearance of the crowds in
the rainy weather.
“The apparition of these faces in the crowd/ Petals on a wet black bough.”
In the poem “The pool” Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) describes her encounter between
her and her yet unborn child. Two months after the publication of this poem, in
May 1915, she delivered a still-born baby, the first and only one child with
her husband, Richard Aldington. It is a poem about self-discovery. Her face
mirrored in the river was covered with bands of her net. In just five lines
consisting of 23 words, she brings out the lack of freedom and conflicting thoughts
of a woman trapped by the conventions of the society and the traditional role
of the woman.
“Are you alive? / I touch you. / You quiver like a
sea-fish. / I cover you with my net. / What are you-banded one?
In the poem “Wind and silver” Amy Lowell compares the moon
and the fish-pond to silver and wind. The poet contrasts the quiet beauty of
the fish-pond with the swift movement of the wind which makes the pond shake
with silver ripples like the scales of a moving dragon in autumn moon light.
“Greatly shining, /
The Autumn moon floats in the thin sky; / And the fish-ponds shake their backs
and/ flash their dragon scales/ As she passes over them.”
In another poem “A
Lady” the poet depicts the appearance and the worth of an old woman. The poem
consists of sixteen lines. In the first part comprising twelve lines, the main
idea is projected. The old woman looks beautiful, yet faded. She compares her
appearance to the sounds of an old opera harpsichord and to silks damaged by
the sun in a woman’s sitting room or boudoir. Still in her eyes one can see the
imprint of the past glory appearing like fallen roses. The innumerable
experiences of her life are compared to “the pungence of sealed spice-jars.” In
the second stanza she tells about herself as “a new-minted penny. She asks
the old lady to gather the penny from the dust and let its sparkle amuse her.
The poet thinks that her youth is no more valuable than a penny when compared
to the complexities of age. The poet admires the old woman and aspires that she
will also like the old woman find important meaning in all the experiences she
will have.
In “The Red Wheel Barrow” William Carlos Williams focusses
on a single image and shows the importance of much neglected tools like the wheelbarrow,
representing the working class. The white chickens beside the wheelbarrow in
contrast shows the dependence of man on both living and non-living beings for
his survival. The red wheelbarrow drenched in rain acquires a peculiar shine
suggesting the Nature’s intimate connection with simple things. The images of the red wheelbarrow and the
white chickens are juxtaposed and shown as the central symbols of farming and
agriculture necessary for maintenance of life.
The whole poem is a single sentence in six lines without
capitalization and punctuation written in a calm and meditative tone. The entire poem has sixteen words with four
words in each stanza. The lines are extremely short. The first line of each
stanza has three words and the second line has only one. This poem is in free
verse with no meter and rhyme. This poem is written in simple and
conversational style and is calm and cool in tone.
“so much depends/ upon / a red wheel/ barrow / glazed with
rain /water / beside the white / chickens.”
Thus the Imagist movement brought simplicity, accurate
observation, liberation from conventional rules and straightforward description
of things without any artificial trappings. It is like a picture painted with
words.
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17th September, 2023 Somaseshu Gutala
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