imagism

Imagism was a short-lived but influential movement in early 20th-century poetry that sought to replace ornate diction with clear, precise images. Imagist poets aimed to present a thing directly through concrete sensory detail, often in a single, sharply focused moment, and to express it with economy and exact word choice.

Origins and key figures emerged around 1912–1914 in Britain and the United States. The movement’s core figures included Ezra Pound, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Richard Aldington, and F. S. Flint in Britain, with Amy Lowell promoting the approach in America. Pound’s guidance and the anthology Des Imagistes (1914) helped crystallize the program, which emphasized direct treatment of the subject, the use of precise, concrete images, and a break from florid rhetoric. American poets associated with the movement included Lowell and her circle, who helped broaden its influence.

Principles center on: direct treatment of the thing; an image-based approach where meaning arises from concrete detail rather than exposition; economy of language and avoidance of unnecessary adjectives or abstractions; and the use of contemporary, “everyday” speech rather than grandiose diction. Imagist poems often employed free verse and brisk lineation to foreground the image itself.

Legacy and influence: Though the formal Imagist movement was relatively brief, its emphasis on image, precision, and conciseness influenced later modernist poets and helped shape general approaches to imagery in 20th-century poetry. Poets such as Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams drew on imagist principles, contributing to the broader modernization of English-language poetry.