3 Imagism

IMAGISM
 Imagism: definition, representatives, main tenets
 Imagist Poetry
Amy Lowell : «Autumn Haze», «The Pond»
Ezra Pound : «In a Station of the Metro»
H.D. : «Oread»
Impact of free verse (Whitman) on Imagist manifesto : «A Pact» by

E.Pound
Impact on Greek mythology on H.D.’s poetry : «Eurydice»
Evaluation of an essay on «Chicago»

IMAGISM
Ezra Amy H.D. W.C.

Poud Lowell Williams
Imagism --- A. Lowell --- “Amygism”
Imagism --- E.Pound --- Vorticism

Imagism --- W.C.Williams --- Objectivism
“In a Station of the Metro”
E.Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
January 1913: Poetry Magazine
“Three Poems…….H.D., “Imagiste”

March 1913 :Poetry Magazine
E.Pound “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”
1. “Direct treatment of the thing.”
2. “To use absolutely no word which does not contribute to
the presentation. To employ always the exact word, not the
merely-exact, nor the merely decorative word.”
3. 3. As regarding the rhythm: to compose in the sequence of
the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome.
March 1913 :Poetry Magazine
Economy of words/ laconic style/
2. “To use absolutely no word which does not
contribute to the presentation. To employ
always the exact word, not the merely-exact,
nor the merely decorative word.”
In a Station of the Metro

Ezra Pound
petals
Impact of the haiku tradition
Haiku: a short poem of 17 syllables

Metrical pattern: 5-7-5 syllables
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Fu-ru i-ke ya (5)

ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)
mi-zu-no o-to (5) (1686)
An ancient pond
a frog jumps in
the splash of water.
a bee staggers out
of the peony --
enough
a field of cotton—
as if the moon
had flowered
a monk quietly sips his morning tea
a flowering chrysanthemum
Haiku
 Traditional haiku consist of 17 syllables (on)

in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on .
 Two images or ideas are juxtaposed. A
"cutting word" (kireji) marks the manner in
which the juxtaposed elements are related.
 A seasonal reference (kigo)
a monk quietly sips his morning tea

a flowering chrysanthemum
A haiku
an aging willow-- (5)

its image unsteady (7)
in the flowing stream (5)
Robert Spiess
A haiku:
Clinic
On the walk a dead bee
In fetal position.
by Helen J. Sherry
2. Economy of words
The process of the composition of

“In a Station of the Metro”
Initial length Final Version

30 lines 2 Lines
2. “To use absolutely no word which does not

contribute to the presentation. To employ
always the exact word, not the merely-
exact, nor the merely decorative word.”
3. As regarding the rhythm:
to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase,
not in the sequence of the metronome.
metronome
 Poetry composed in the sequence of the
metronome.
Walt Whitman Ezra Pound
(1819-1892)

(1885-1972)
«A Pact»
by Ezra Pound
A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound
I make truce with you, Walt Whitman— agreement

I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root—
Let there be commerce between us.
What I Feel About Walt Whitman (1909)
Ezra Pound
I honour him for he prophesied me while I can only
recognise him as a forebear of whom I ought to be proud.
He is America. His crudity is an exceeding great stench,

but it is America. He is the hollow place in the rock that
echoes with his time. He does 'chant the crucial stage' and
he is the 'voice triumphant.' He is disgusting. He is an
exceedingly nauseating pill, but he accomplished his
mission.
He is America. His crudity is an exceeding
great stench, but it is America. He is the
hollow place in the rock that echoes with his
time. He does 'chant the crucial stage'
and he is the 'voice triumphant.' He is
disgusting. He is an exceedingly nauseating
pill, but he accomplished his mission.
He is America. His crudity is an exceeding
great stench, but it is America. He is the
hollow place in the rock that echoes with his
time. He does 'chant the crucial stage'
and he is the 'voice triumphant.' He is
disgusting. He is an exceedingly nauseating
pill, but he accomplished his mission.
A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound

A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound

A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound
I make truce with you, Walt Whitman—

A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound

A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound

A Pact (1913)
Ezra Pound

1. Direct treatment of the thing.

2. To use absolutely no word which does not contribute to the presentation.

 “Do not retell in mediocre verse what has
already been done in good prose.”
 “Do not be descriptive.”
E.Pound
“The image is not part of the poem, it is the
poem. The image is not the means, but the
end.”
E. Pound
Difference between a Symbol and an Image
 Symbols have a fixed  Images have a variable

value, like numbers in significance like the
arithmetics. signs a, b, c in algebra.
E.Pound
“We convey an emotion by presenting the
object and circumstances of that emotion,
without comment… We make the scenery
convey the emotion. A hardness of cut stone.
No slop, no sentimentality…”
Richard Aldington
Imagist Poems
Amy Lowell «Autumn Haze»

«The Pond»
Ezra Pound «In a Station of the Metro»
An Imagist Poem
“Autumn Haze”
Is it a dragon fly or maple leaf

That settles softly upon the water.
Amy
Lowell
An Imagist Poem:
“The Pond”
Cold, wet leaves

Floating on moss-colored water
And the croaking of frogs-
Cracked bell-notes in the twilight.
Amy Lowell
An Imagist Poem:
“The Pond”
Cold, wet leaves tactile image

Amy Lowell
An Imagist Poem:
“The Pond”
Cold, wet leaves

Amy Lowell
An Imagist Poem:
“The Pond”
Cold, wet leaves

And the croaking of frogs- auditory images
Amy Lowell
2 images:
“faces in the crowd” – everyday life
“petals on a wet, black bough” – nature (spring)
Both images are concrete.

«Apparition»
(an abstact noun)
 Ghost, specter, phantom

 Act of a visible exposure
“Apparition”:
implies something both visible and invisible
The effect of the word “apparition”
………….. these faces in the crowd:

“Apparition” suggests both “ghost” and
appearance, a state of both existence and non
existence, visibility and non visibility. This word
underlines the spectral quality of the two main
images, the faces in the crowd and the petals:
both of them are of transitory/ fleeting/
momentary nature.
Importance of the word «petals»

 A face in the crowd is part of a larger whole, the crowd,
which is more substantial and more permanent. If our
attention is arrested by specific faces it is for a short
period of time until we move to another face. What is
enduring is the procession of moving faces, the crowd.
 Petals, in a similar way, are ephemeral/impermanent

when they are compared to the solid background upon
which they are placed: the wet, black bough. The
adjectives “wet” and “black” underline the concreteness
of the bough, its solidity.
The transient nature of both images
corresponds to the fragility of mental images
in general. Rather than presenting the “thing
itself”, poetic composition involves a
secondary image that resembles the “real”
thing (and yet is distanced from it).
Importance of punctuation
semicolon (;) or colon (:)
Initial version:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Final version:
Haiku
 Two images or ideas are juxtaposed. A

"cutting word" (kireji) marks the manner in
which the juxtaposed elements are related.
Semicolon (;) or colon (:)
functions as a "cutting word" which marks the manner
in which the juxtaposed elements are related
Initial version:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
(;) – stresses the independence of the two images
Final version:
(:) - the second line develops (explains) the first line
- the first line is incomplete
- the two images are related to each other
Importance of punctuation

The apparition of these faces in the crowd (are like)

Punctuation
Petals, on a wet, black bough.

Punctuation
Petals, on a wet, black bough.
“Petals”: an independent image
seperated from the cluster of images

“Petals”: part of the image
Interpretation of the poem:
“The poem records a descent underground
and recalls Odysseus’ encounter with the
souls of the dead in Hades.”
Hugh Kenner
R. Aldindton’s parody
of E.Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”
The apparition of these poems in the crowd:

white faces in a dead black faint.
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)
(1886-1961)
General aspects of H.D.’s poetry

“Eurydice”
“Helen”
H.D. as an Imagist
“Oread”
Impact of
Ancient Greek literature and mythology
Helen in Egypt (1960)

Impact of Greek Mythology
 “Eurydice”
 “Helen”
Orpheus and Eurydice
Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein,

Orpheus and Eurydice, 1806
Eurydice
So you have swept me back,
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth,
I who could have slept among the live flowers
at last;
so for your arrogance

and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders upon moss of ash;

why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?
why did you glance back?

why did you hesitate for that moment?
why did you bend your face
caught with the flame of the upper earth,
above my face?
if I could have caught up from the earth,
the whole of the flowers of the earth,
if once I could have breathed into myself
the very golden crocuses
and the red,
and the very golden hearts of the first saffron,
the whole of the golden mass,
the whole of the great fragrance,
I could have dared the loss.
So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I have lost the earth
and the flowers of the earth,
and the live souls above the earth,
and you who passed across the light
and reached ruthless;
you who have your own light,

who are to yourself a presence,
who need no presence;
yet for all your arrogance
and your glance,
I tell you this:
…
my hell is no worse than yours
though you pass among the flowers and speak
with the spirits above earth.
“Helen” by H.D.
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives lustre=radiance, brightness
where she stands,
and the white hands.
All Greece reviles revile= to criticize strongly

the wan face when she smiles, wan=pale
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.
Greece sees, unmoved, unmoved=emotionally
God's daughter, born of love, unaffected
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid*,
white ash amid funeral cypresses.
*Lay-laid-laid – to cause to lie down (sexual subjugation)

- to bury
- to lay an egg (reference to Leda and the Swan)
Sea Rose
by H.D.
 Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
Sea Rose meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,
more precious
than a wet rose
single on a stem—
you are caught in the drift.
Stunted, with small leaf,

you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.
can the spice rose

drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?
(CP 5)
HD as an Imagist
“The Pool”
Are you alive

I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish
I cover you with my net.
What are you – banded one?
H.D.
OREAD
Vocabulary
“Oread”
Whirl, up sea –
Whirl your poited pines,
Splash your great pines
On our rocks,
Hurl your green over us,
Cover us with your pools of fir.
Who is the speaker?
Who/what does the speaker
address?
CONCRETE terms:
sea
pines
rocks
fir
Verbs
Whirl
Whirl
Splash
Hurl
Cover
Whirl, up sea –
On our rocks,
Whirl, up sea –
On our rocks,
Oread = Land Sea like wood

“our rocks” “pointed pines”
“great pines”
“green”
“pools of fir”
Whirl, up sea –
On our rocks,
Pine Fir
 On "Oread"
Perhaps the first thing that strikes the reader is the absence of certain familiar
elements. There are no similes, no symbols, no generalised reflections or
didacticism, no rhymes, no regular metre, no narrative.
One might well ask what there is, then and the answer would be a great
deal. There is a clarity of diction, and a rhythm that is organic… there is a
vivid economy of language, in which each word seems to have been
carefully chiselled out of other contexts, and there is a subtle technique of
intensification by repetition -- no phrase is remarkable in itself, perhaps, but
there is a sense of rapt incantation, an enthralled dwelling on particular
cadences that gives a hermetic quality, a prophetic power, to the whole.
Richard Gray, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

It is the entire poem that is experienced, not a striking line, a felicitous
comparison, or an ingenious rhyme; the poem has become the unit of meaning
and not the word, so each single word can remain stark, simple, and
unpretentious.
In 'Oread', the image that constitutes the poem becomes not merely a
medium for describing a sensation but the sensation itself. The sea is the
pinewood, the pinewood is the sea, the wind surrounds and inhabits both; and
the Greek mountain-nymph of the title comprehends and becomes identified with
all three elements.
There is a dynamic and unified complex, an ecstatic fusion of natural and

human energies; and the image represents the point of fusion, 'the precise
instant' (to quote that remark of Pound's again) 'when a thing outward and
objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and, subjective'.
Richard Gray, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

 'Oread' is typical of H.D.'s work in many ways. 'I would be lonely', she once
admitted, while living at the heart of literary London, 'but for the intensity of
my . . . inner life'.
And this became the subject of her work, from the early Imagist verse to the
later, more oracular poems: the secret existence that cast her, in the midst
of company, into permanent but willing exile, the ecstatic sense of inhabiting
a borderline between land and ocean, outer world and inner, time and
eternity.
Here, greatly influenced by classical Greek poetry, H.D. speaks in a taut

and suggestive manner, emitting everything that is inessential, structurally
or emotionally unimportant.
Richard Gray, From American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

“Heat”
O wind, rend open the heat
cut apart the heat,
rend it to tatters.
Fruit cannot drop

through this thick air
fruit cannot fall into heat
that presses up and blunts
the points of pears
and rounds the grapes.
Cut the heat-

Plough through it,
Turning it on either side
Of your path.
Topics for essays:
 Write down an essay discussing “In a Station

of the Metro” as an Imagist poem.
 Compare “In a Station of the Metro” with

Sandburg’s “Fog”. Can we define “Fog” as an
Imagist poem?
Write down an essay discussing the
treatment of death in «Cool Tombs»
Sandburg trumpeted democracy, even when discussing
death in his poem “Cool Tombs” as death deals its hand
democratically. In delivering this message, Sandburg evokes
historical figures who we remember, though they themselves
can remember no longer from within their tombs. But in the final
section, we are brought to the present; the poem seems to
demand of us a commitment to fullness of life and feeling, since
we, too, will end in the tombs. Morbid as this poem most
obviously is, its message remains cheering. It is a reminder that
we are alive and that merely by feeling that life, we are
accomplishing the most that we will have, when finally all tallies
are evened in the dust.
Kristina Zarlengo
FREE Online Lecture on Imagism
(including analysis of “In a Station of the Metro”

and “Oread”)
 Taught by Yale professor Langdon Hammer

 You can find the lecture on YouTube.
 To get more information, visit the Yale
website.
Next Lecture:
Amy Lowell
«Sisters»
«Patterns»
Topics for oral presentations (5 min.)

-Sappho
-Elizabeth Barret Browning
(Short biography, main achievements, contribution to poetry.)

The presentations will provide prelimanary information for «Sisters»
as the two figures are mentioned in the poem.

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IMAGISM

 Imagism: definition, representatives, main tenets

Impact of free verse (Whitman) on Imagist manifesto : «A Pact» by

Evaluation of an essay on «Chicago»

Ezra Amy H.D. W.C.

Imagism --- E.Pound --- Vorticism

“Three Poems…….H.D., “Imagiste”

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Haiku: a short poem of 17 syllables

Fu-ru i-ke ya (5)

 Traditional haiku consist of 17 syllables (on)

a monk quietly sips his morning tea

an aging willow-- (5)

The process of the composition of

Initial length Final Version

2. “To use absolutely no word which does not

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman— agreement

He is America. His crudity is an exceeding great stench,

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman— agreement

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman— agreement

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman—

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman—

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman—

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman—

1. Direct treatment of the thing.

3. As regarding the rhythm:

 “Do not be descriptive.”

 Symbols have a fixed  Images have a variable

Amy Lowell «Autumn Haze»

Is it a dragon fly or maple leaf

Cold, wet leaves

Cold, wet leaves tactile image

Cold, wet leaves

Cold, wet leaves

Both images are concrete.

 Ghost, specter, phantom

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

 Petals, in a similar way, are ephemeral/impermanent

 Two images or ideas are juxtaposed. A

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd (are like)

Petals, on a wet, black bough.

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Petals on a wet, black bough.

The apparition of these poems in the crowd:

General aspects of H.D.’s poetry

Helen in Egypt (1960)

Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein,

so for your arrogance

why did you glance back?

you who have your own light,

All Greece reviles revile= to criticize strongly

*Lay-laid-laid – to cause to lie down (sexual subjugation)

Stunted, with small leaf,

can the spice rose

Are you alive

Oread = Land Sea like wood

Richard Gray, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

There is a dynamic and unified complex, an ecstatic fusion of natural and

Richard Gray, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

Here, greatly influenced by classical Greek poetry, H.D. speaks in a taut

Richard Gray, From American Poetry of the Twentieth Century.

Fruit cannot drop