IMAGISM--Criticism & Theory

                          

IMAGISM

Study Notes by S. Sreekumar

      Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines Imagism as “a movement in poetry advocating free verse and the expression of ideas and emotions through clear precise images".

I   Growth and Development

                Imagism as a literary movement flourished in England and America between 1912 and 1917. Its chief exponents included Ezra Pound, T.E.Hulme, Hilda Doolittle, Richard Aldington and Amy Lowell. But it was Pound who christened the movement as Imagism.  In 1912 he wanted to send some poems written by Hilda Doolittle ('H.D') to Poetry, a magazine edited by Harriet Monroe. Since Hilda Doolittle had not published any poems till that date, Pound felt that it was better for her if she belonged to some particular school of poetry. Therefore, he added to the manuscript the words "H.D Imagiste". That was the origin of the imagist school.  

        Unfortunately, from the very beginning, controversies haunted the school. D.H. Lawrence who wrote some imagist poems dumped the movement as "just an advertising scheme" of Pound. All the controversies that blotted the movement are documented by Timothy Materer in an interesting article- "Make it sell! Ezra Pound Advertises Modernism". Materer sees Pound as a shrewd propagandist who selected a French term to name the school, as cultural movements are best advertised in that language. The French title, moreover, implied some romantic connection with the Greats like Baudelaire and Mallarme. Pound, according to Materer, also hinted at some mysterious aspects of the school, again true to the advertiser's practice of referring to some "secret ingredient x", "xylitol"  … that only the user of the product can appreciate". Though his advertising genius made the Imagist movement an immediate success (four anthologies were published in as many years), Pound was in for a disappointment as the movement was hijacked by Amy Lowell.

                Amy Lowell who later became the leader of the movement was brought into it by Pound himself. It was Pound who published one of her poems in his anthology Des Imagistes (1914). But she had enormous financial resources and literary connections and a "Madison Avenue ruthlessness" (Materer) to match them. She took over the Imagist brought and out three anthologies in 1915, 1916 and 1917 to which Pound refused to contribute. However, he could do nothing but to dub the movement as "Amygism" and its new leader as "hippopoetess". Pound turned away from Imagism to a new movement called Vorticism, which was essentially not much different from the former. Hilda Doolittle's poems dominated Vorticism also.

II What is an image?

                Pound defined image as "that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time". In formulating this definition Pound was influenced by a form of Japanese poetry known as "Haiku" (or "Hokku") . 'Haikku' is a poetic form of seventeen syllables and Pound himself composed one after seeing a crowd in a Parisian metro station:

                The apparition of these faces in the crowd

                 Petals on a wet black bough.

                However, in the poems of Carl Sandburg and William Carlos Williams Imagist techniques lean towards personification. Image was the central focus but personification - "the humanizing, anthropomorphic tendency of the human mind", as A.R. Jones calls it - became their style. T.E. Hulme's lines in 'Autumn' may serve as the best example for the style of personification indulged in by the Imagists.

                I walked abroad

                And saw the ruddy moon lean over a ledge

                Like a red - faced farmer

                …………………………..

                And round about were wistful stars,

                With white faces like town children.

                Since the imagists themselves are not very clear what the term imagism means, I.A.Richards's general conclusion that an image is " a mental event peculiarly connected with sensation" may be considered as a starting point for any discussion on imagism.

III The Imagist Manifesto                 Imagism can be roughly stated as the use of images in poetry. But mages are not visual only. We have 'gustatory', ' olfactory' , 'thermal' images along with 'kinetic', 'haptic', 'empathic','static', 'dynamic' images. Critics , even speak of 'tied' and 'free' images . Because of these various types of images, the use of them in poetry may certainly lead to confusion. Perceiving such an eventuality both Pound and Amy Lowell had given their own concepts about what the school deems to be imagism. Amy Lowell's concepts, being more lucid and explicit, are given here in full. In her Tendencies in Modern American Poetry she sets them in order thus:

1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not the merely decorative word.

2. To create new rhythms – and not to copy the old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon “free verse” as the only way of writing poetry. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free verse than in conventional forms.

3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject.

4. To present an image (hence the name “imagist”). We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities.

5. To produce 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.

IV Some Imagists

                Now let us look at some imagist theorists and poets.

1.T.E. Hulme

                His lectures and conversations had influenced the Imagist movement much though Pound did not value them high. Hulme objected to the blurriness in language that characterized the poetry of Swinburne. According to him the "moaning and whining" that took place in the name of poetry during the closing years of nineteenth century was detestable. He considered the imaging process as a way to get out of the rut into which poetry was pushed in. "Each word", he declared, "must be an image". Hulme exerted much influence on T.S.Eliot.

2. Ezra Pound

                As is stated elsewhere in this essay, Pound was responsible for the initial enthusiasm, which the movement generated in England and America. He believed that it was better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works. Pound believed that poetry should be dry and solid. Even when Imagism became "Amygism" and was taken over by mediocre poets, Pound did not lose interest. He turned his attention to vorticism but the description of literary vorticism he gave in Blast, the vorticist journal, was simply an improved version of Imagism.

3.T.S.Eliot

                T.S.Eliot never called himself an Imagist. But he understood the nature and function of the images in verse. He believed that the image is a device by which the poet brought the reader in direct contact with the subject.  His poems, particularly 'Preludes' treat the subject directly.

                The winter evening settles down

                With smell of steaks in passage ways

                Six 0'clock

                The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

4.'H.D' (Hilda Doolittle)

                As stated elsewhere in this essay, it was for 'H.D' that Pound invented Imagism. He felt that 'H.D' 's poems were the finest examples of Imagism. But ‘H.D’ turned away from mere Imagism to much more complex symbolism in her later poetry.

5.John Gould Fletcher

                Amy Lowell considered him an excellent Imagist and was fond of quoting him. She included his poems in all her anthologies. His poems had a directness, which appealed to most of his contemporaries. The poem 'The Well' is an example:

                The well is not used now

                Its waters are tainted

                I remember there was once a man went down

                To clean it.

                He found it very cold and deep,

                With a queer niche in one of its sides

                From which he hauled forth buckets of bricks and dirt.

6.Amy Lowell

                It was Lowell who took over Imagism from Pound and spent energy and money in popularizing it. She wrote free verse and also "polyphonic verse". In the latter mode she used cadence, assonance, alliteration, rhyme and 'echo effects'. More than the others, she was committed to making Imagism a popular movement in literature. She brought out three anthologies of Imagist poetry.

 V. Imagist Movement - An Assessment

                In the final analysis, Imagism appears more as a passing phase than a full-fledged movement; like the Romantic Movement or Modernism. It lasted for only a few years and impressed, only a few creative writers. But its chief merit is that it gave rise to new ways of perception and new modes of expression.

                Imagism`s chief defect was its apparent superficiality. Imagists sacrificed meaning for style and effect. But it brought about a verbal discipline and taught the generation to use words carefully and effectively without 'romantic vagueness' or 'emotional slither' whereas symbolism sought an affinity with music, Imagism sought analogy with sculpture.

 Books for further reading:

Amy Lowell:  Tendencies in Modern American Poetry.

L. Untermeyer:  The New Era in American Poetry.

Dr. S. Sreekumar