imagists
Direct image writers
Imagists were early 20th-century poets who emphasized precise imagery and clear, direct language over Victorian sentimentality and abstraction.
The movement, led by figures like Ezra Pound and H.D., favored concentrated images and free verse: The imagists stripped poetry down to its essentials.
The principles influenced modern poetry broadly, even as the movement itself was short-lived.
Accuracy of measurement
- clarityState of being understandable
- directnessQuality of being straightforward
- free versePoetry without fixed structure
- cadenceRhythmic pulse or pattern
brevity · compression · condensation · distillation · terseness · succinctness · exactness · restraint
Distilling to essential qualities
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- innovationCreating something original
- objectivityFreedom from personal bias
impersonality · hardness · dryness · sculptural · lapidary · chiseled · spare · austere
- objectivismBelief in external truths
- symbolistsArtists using emblems over direct statement
- modernismFavoring contemporary approaches
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
Perceptible descriptive element
- presentationFormal display to viewers
- Japanese aestheticsPhilosophical principles governing Eastern beauty
- Chinese poetryVerse from China
- ideogramSymbol representing concept directly
precision
Accuracy of measurement
- clarityState of being understandable
- directnessQuality of being straightforward
- free versePoetry without fixed structure
cadence · brevity · compression · condensation · distillation · terseness · succinctness · exactness · restraint · understatement
abstraction
Distilling to essential qualities
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- innovationCreating something original
objectivity · impersonality · hardness · dryness · sculptural · lapidary · chiseled · spare · austere · minimalism
Ezra Pound
- objectivismBelief in external truths
- symbolistsArtists using emblems over direct statement
- modernismFavoring contemporary approaches
avant-garde · manifesto · bohemian · anthology · coterie
sensory detail
Perceptible descriptive element
- presentationFormal display to viewers
- Japanese aestheticsPhilosophical principles governing Eastern beauty
- Chinese poetryVerse from China
ideogram · pictorial · evocative · vividness · superposition
imagistsromantics
Idealists about love
sentimentalists · symbolists · decadents · epic poets · rhetoricians