imagism


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Related to imagism: vorticism, surrealism, Ezra Pound, modernism

im·a·gism

also Im·a·gism  (ĭm′ə-jĭz′əm)
n.
A literary movement launched by British and American poets in the early 1900s that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism.

im′a·gist n.
im′a·gis′tic adj.
im′a·gis′ti·cal·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

imagism

(ˈɪmɪˌdʒɪzəm)
n
(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a poetic movement in England and America between 1912 and 1917, initiated chiefly by Ezra Pound, advocating the use of ordinary speech and the precise presentation of images
ˈimagist n, adj
ˌimagˈistic adj
ˌimagˈistically adv
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

im•ag•ism

(ˈɪm əˌdʒɪz əm)

n.
a style of poetry that employs free verse, precise imagery, and the patterns and rhythms of common speech.
im′ag•ist, n., adj.
im`ag•is′tic, adj.
im`ag•is′ti•cal•ly, adv.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Imagism

a theory or practice of a group of English and American poets between 1909 and 1917, especially emphasis upon the use of common speech, new rhythms, unrestricted subject matter, and clear and precise images. — Imagist, n. — Imagistic, adj.
See also: Literature
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.imagism - a movement by American and English poets early in the 20th century in reaction to Victorian sentimentality; used common speech in free verse with clear concrete imagery
art movement, artistic movement - a group of artists who agree on general principles
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
her I was sorry I missed her lecture on Imagism the
A related technique in poetry was <IR> IMAGISM </IR> .
While all those writers associated with imagism propagandized vigorously for their beliefs, Pound, who had become editor of Harriet Monroe's Poetry magazine, published therein a number of manifestoes as well as his own and his friends ' poems.
Upward, an important but largely forgotten figure in early British modernism who helped originate imagism and who influenced Pound's Cantos,(25) uses images from an advertising poster as the substance of a vaguely imagistic poem.
(1.) "[T]he weakness of Imagism has been this affectation and feminine self-love, the strength of Imagism its demand that one actually look." From The Selected Letters of George Oppen, edited by Rachel Blau DuPlessis (Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), 146.
After 1917, imagism as a movement dissolved, but by then its values were widely established.
An early friend of Ezra Pound, Williams was influenced by imagism but scorned Pound both for his expatriatism and for his role as aesthete.
We could see in this early poem a debt to imagism. If, as Pound suggested, imagism was partly concerned with the appreciation of invisible energies, we might locate the unseen energy in the currents moving so imperceptibly that the boats appear to possess a life of their own.
Ignatow was among the poets who frequented Greenwich Village in the late 1930s and early 1940s and, under the tutelage of William Carlos Williams, espoused the tenets of <IR> IMAGISM </IR> .
At one time married to the American poet Hilda Doolittle, Aldington was a member of the group that introduced imagism. He was among those who, after World War I, found England barren and sterile.
The theme of movement is part of the sensuality of her "The Way Through," and its wit of tedium vitae: "The water flies in the halfwit's eye/who didn't move fast enough/'Who do you think I am, a horse?'/but we made it--." The naturalism of this landscape is radically altered by the staggering subjectivity of the end, and its uneconomical luxuries: "Drown us, lose us,/rain, let us loose, so,/to lose ourselves, to career/up the plunge of the hill." The end is unpunctuated ecstasy because the poem has veered so far away from any imagism a la H.D., which it might superficially resemble.
His verse ranged from exercises in imagism to espousal of social causes.