Some Imagist Poets, 1916: An Annual Anthology

Some Imagist Poets, 1916: An Annual Anthology

In bringing the second volume of Some Imagist Poets before the public, the authors wish to express their gratitude for the interest which the 1915 volume aroused. The discussion of it was widespread, and even those critics out of sympathy with Imagist tenets accorded it much space. In the Preface to that book, we endeavoured to present those tenets in a succinct form. But the very brevity we employed has lead to a great deal of misunderstanding. We have decided, therefore, to explain the laws which govern us a little more fully. A few people may understand, and the rest can merely misunderstand again, a result to which we are quite accustomed. In the first place Imagism does not mean merely the presentation of pictures. Imagism refers to the manner of presentation, not to the subject. It means a clear presentation of whatever the author wishes to convey. Now he may wish to convey a mood of indecision, in which case the poem should be indecisive; he may wish to bring before his reader the constantly shifting and changing lights over a landscape, or the varying attitudes of mind of a person under [Pgvi] strong emotion, then his poem must shift and change to present this clearly. The exact word does not mean the word which exactly describes the object in itself, it means the exact word which brings the effect of that object before the reader as it presented itself to the poet's mind at the time of writing the poem. Imagists deal but little with similes, although much of their poetry is metaphorical. The reason for this is that while acknowledging the figure to be an integral part of all poetry, they feel that the constant imposing of one figure upon another in the same poem blurs the central effect. The great French critic, Remy de Gourmont, wrote last Summer in La France that the Imagists were the descendants of the French Symbolistes. In the Preface to his Livre des Masques, M. de Gourmont has thus described Symbolisme: Individualism in literature, liberty of art, abandonment of existing forms.... The sole excuse which a man can have for writing is to write down himself, to unveil for others the sort of world which mirrors itself in his individual glass.... He should create his own aestheticsand we should admit as many aesthetics as there are original minds, and judge them for what they are and not what they are not. In this sense the Imagists are descendants of the Symbolistes; they are Individualists. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 37469
Author: Aldington, Richard
Release Date: Sep 18, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Fletcher, John Gould, 1886-1950, Flint, F. S. (Frank Stewart), 1885-1960, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961, Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930, Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925