The Imagist Poets

by Andrew Thacker

This book offers a lively account of the Imagist Poets, the first significant group of modernist poets writing in English. It discusses what their writing achieved, and analyses the theoretical claims of Imagism in relation to its poetic practice. It revises the received view of Imagism by drawing upon current re-readings of modernism in terms of gender and sexuality, cultural geography, and the idea of literary institutions and formations. The book shows the variety of practice within the Imagist group, and shifts the focus from seeing Imagism purely as the creation of Ezra Pound, by granting a much stronger focus to often overlooked figures such as Amy Lowell, F.S. Flint and John Gould Fletcher. The book also examines the cultural formation of Imagism as a movement competing within the artistic avant-garde of London in the early twentieth century.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Avryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this! I especially like how Thacker considers the relationships between imagist poets and their subjects. When analyzing Pound's poem, 'Ts'ai Chi'h,' Thacker writes, "just as the leaves cling to the stone we are left with a poem made of words that cling like things to the page, a poem made out of colourful 'concrete' things'" (56). It is just this kind of close reading that makes me believe that even literary criticism is an art!

Earlier in the book, Thacker includes an observation made by May Sinclair regarding the difference between Imagist and Victorian poetry that I thought was interesting too:

"The Victorian poets are protestant. For them the bread and wine are symbols of Reality... The Imagists are Catholic; they believe in Trans-Substantiation. For them the bread and wine are the body and blood." (46)

Also, I found it interesting to consider the commercial aspect of movements or 'isms'. It kind of made me realize that the tension between literature and the marketplace is nothing new. In many ways, Imagism, Vorticism, Futurism, etc. were forms of marketing (albeit highbrow) and mutually beneficial for the poets involved .