In What Way Imagist Poetry Influences Modernists

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Return to Classicism

3. Unconventional Form: Vers Libre

4. Innovative Content and Language

5. Image and Consciousness

6. Conclusion

7. Reference List

In What Way Imagist Poetry Influences Modernists

Introduction

The England-based Georgians had been attacked by the modernists as “unoriginal and slack in technique, shallow in feeling, slight in intellect…and weekend escapism” (David 1976, p.204). The American-based Genteel Mode, on the other hand, was also criticized as “…in its Romantic spiritual elevation it did not grapple with experience…”(David 1976, p.204). Modernist writers contended that the society had undergone enormous changes at the beginning of the twentieth century and that the carefree and relaxed attitude, which was representative of Georgian poetry and the Genteel Mode cannot present the real situation of the society and demanded that people should break away from traditions. Imagists were such a group of poets who refused to obey and challenged the traditions of poetry composition (some of these practices, though, were disapproved by some of the critics). As David put it, “imagism has been described as the grammar school of modern poetry,” which means that it plays a fundamental role in influencing the way along which later modernist writers followed to create their work. Reviewing how imagism reacted against history would facilitate understanding of how modernism came into shape. This essay thus is aimed at analyzing certain characteristics of the Imagists poetry and how it is reflected or inherited by later modernist writers: the return to classicism; the break-away from old traditions of poetry form; content and language with modern characteristics; image and consciousness.

The Return to Classicism

One of the beliefs in respect to modern poetry is that the core of the movement is to return to classicism (Peter 1999, p.68). Although this comment is not adequate in terms of evaluation, it recognizes the reality of the development of modern poetry. The Classical Poetry lost its liveliness in the nineteenth century and deteriorated into rigidness. Hence it was replaced by the Romantic Poetry, which also ceased into being at the twentieth century. What is ironic is that modernists, in a large scale, seeked inspiration from The Classical Poetry. Firstly, they adopted a lot of allusion to mythology. The waste land, written by T. S. Eliot, is one of the most representative works which have bearing on this characteristic. In fact, the Imagist poetry of the early period had already shown this feature. The most notable examples are the poems written by H.D.. She was enthusiastic in the culture and traditions of ancient Greek. That being the reason, most of the themes of her poems touched on Greek mythology. One of the lines in H. D.’s poem “Epitaph” also illustrates her obsession with the Greek culture, “Greek flower; Greek ecstasy /reclaims for ever”. What is more, it is known that H.D.’s poems achieved an unprecedented success and she was regarded as “the purest imagist” (David 1976, p.339). Her poems were usually composed of short sentences. The structure of her poems was highly compact; the themes originated from Greek mythology, sentimental comments, which occurred in the work of Romantic Poetry, were infrequent. Take one of her poems, “Epigram” for example:

The golden one is gone from the banquets;

She, beloved f Atimetus,

The swallow, the bright Homonoea;

Gone the dear chatterer.

Not only is the structure pertaining to the Greek and classical, the theme itself is one of those stories from Ancient Greek. This is one of the typical earlier examples produced by one of the Imagists who tried to emulate classical Greek poetry. Nevertheless, the sui generis characteristic and writing techniques of the Imagists are not fully displayed in poems in imitation of Greek poetry. A more famous poem “Oread”, which is also written by H.D., could claim for the uniqueness of the Imagist poetry.

Whirl up, sea—

Whirl your pointed pines.

Splash your great pines

On our rocks.

Hurl your green over us—

Cover us with your pools of fir.

The structure of the poem is simple, nonetheless, it imposes great impression on readers—David claimed that the effect was instant (1976, p.338). The poem does not include any emotional expression. It only presents two images, the pines and the sea and they seem to blend into one single image. Further description or expression of emotions would be redundant or damage ...