ROMANTICISM AND CLASSICISM--T.E.HULME

ROMANTICISM AND CLASSICISM

T.E.HULME

[Lecture notes by Dr. S. Sreekumar

 Prepared for Annamalai University MPhil Scholars]

This is a revised version. The Blog has another essay with the same title

Disclaimer

Scholars, please note:

These study materials are only for classroom purposes. The explanations are not original in any sense but taken from various sources. These notes are offered with the sole intention of helping students and research scholars with a quick overview of Hulme’s ideas. Those who would like to have a deeper or original study of the subject must look elsewhere for assistance.

Brief Biographical Note

T.E HULME (1833 – 1917) was a philosopher and aesthetician. He was killed in the First World War. From his unpublished papers, Herbert Reed edited a volume of critical essays entitled Speculations from which ‘Romanticism and Classicism’ is taken. This essay can be read as the manifesto of Imagism, especially in its recommendation of a dry hard style of poetry. Hulme is the thinker behind the Pound-Eliot revolution in English poetry. His influence is visible in the poetry of Eliot. The essay advocates a preference for Classicism over Romanticism and establishes a modernist poetics based on that.

It must be remembered that ‘Romanticism’ and ‘Classicism’ are pliable terms.

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.