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Ezra Pound
AND
Imagism
Ezra Pound
The man who shaped Modernism!
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
In the autumn of 1907, Pound became professor of
Romance languages at Wabash Presbyterian College,
Crawfordsville, Ind. Although his general behaviour fairly
reflected his Presbyterian upbringing, he was already
writing poetry and was affecting a bohemian manner. His
career came quickly to an end, and in February 1908,
with light luggage and the manuscript of a book of
poems that had been rejected by at least one American
publisher, he set sail for Europe.
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Pound was born in a small mining town in Idaho, the only child of a Federal Land
Office official, Homer Loomis Pound of Wisconsin, and Isabel Weston of New
York City. About 1887 the family moved to the eastern states, and in June 1889,
following Homer Pounds appointment to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, they
settled in nearby Wyncote, where Pound lived a normal middle-class childhood.
After two years at Cheltenham Military Academy, which he left without
graduating, he attended a local high school. From there he went for two years
(190103) to the University of Pennsylvania, where he met his lifelong friend, the
poet William Carlos Williams. He took a Ph.B. (bachelor of philosophy) degree at
Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1905 and returned to the University of
Pennsylvania for graduate work. He received his M.A. in June 1906 but withdrew
from the university after working one more year toward his doctorate. He left with
a knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Provenal, and
Anglo-Saxon, as well as of English literature and grammar.
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
He had been to Europe three times before, the
third time alone in the summer of 1906, when he
had gathered the material for his first three
published articles: Raphaelite Latin, concerning
the Latin poets of the Renaissance,
and Interesting French Publications, concerning
the troubadours (both published in the Book
News Monthly, Philadelphia, September 1906),
and Burgos, a Dream City of Old
Castile (October issue).
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Now, with little money, he sailed to Gibraltar and
southern Spain, then on to Venice, where in June 1908
he published, at his own expense, his first book of
poems, A lume spento. About September 1908 he went
to London, where he was befriended by the writer and
editor Ford Madox Ford (who published him in
his English Review), entered William Butler Yeatss
circle, and joined the school of images, a modern group
presided over by the philosopher T.E. Hulme.
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
Pounds Biography
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
He continued to publish his own poetry
(Ripostes, 1912; Lustra, 1916)
and prose criticism (Pavannes and Divisions,
1918). From the literary remains of the great
Orientalist Ernest Fenollosa, which had been
presented to Pound in 1913, he succeeded in
publishing highly acclaimed English versions of
early Chinese poetry, Cathay (1915), and two
volumes of Japanese Noh plays (191617) as
well.
Quotations
Quotations
Quotations
Poetry in Pictures
Imagist poets focused their writing on simple images. They attempted to
use words to paint pictures in their readers minds.
What is Imagism?
A poetic movement established
in1912 by American and English
poets Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle,
Richard Aldington, and F. S. Flint
Inspired by the critical views of T.E.
Hulme, in response to the careless
thought and Romantic optimism he
saw prevailing in the literary arena.
Imagism
Poetry written that evokes pictures or images for
the reader
Direct presentation of images, or word pictures
Word choice is specific
Adjectives are used to enhance the specificity of
word choice, BUT they are not over-used.
Attempt to freeze a single moment in time and
capture the emotions of that moment
Imagist poetry often reflect influences of haiku or
tanka
Pounds Poetry
His poetry reflects a deep interest in the
past, particularly of ancient cultures
Chinese, Japanese, and Provencal French
Poems are filled with literary and historical
allusions
His poems are difficult to understand
because they are void of explanations and
generalizations
Wrote The Cantos, long poetic sequence
where he expressed his beliefs (eventually
totaling 116 cantos)
Influences on Imagism
Imagist poems were influenced by Japanese haiku
poems of seventeen syllables which usually present
only two juxtaposed images.
This poetry strives to suggests more than its literal
meaning, yet avoids overt figurative devices like
allegories and metaphors.
Ezra Pounds poem In a Station of the Metro is a clear
example of Japanese influence. Pound states, I wrote a
thirty-line poem, and destroyed it because it was what we
call work 'of second intensity.' Six months later I made a
poem half that length; a year later I made the following
hokku-like sentence:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Allusion
An allusion is a reference to something
well known (ie: piece of art, literature,
historical event)
Pounds Poem