英语专业考研 常耀信版 美国文学简史 imagism.pptVIP

Modern poetry: experiments in form (Imagism) Imagism Background Imagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku” I. Introduction to Imagism: It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It grew out of the Symbolist Movement in 1912 and was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others. I. Introduction to Imagism: 3)The Imagist manifesto came out in 1912 showed three Imagist poetic principles: direct treatment of the “thing”（no fuss, frill, or ornament）, exclusion of superfluous words（precision and economy of expression）, the rhythm of the musical phrase rather than the sequence of a metronome（free verse form and music）. Pound defined an image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, and later he extended this definition when he stated that an image was “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas, endowed with energy.” (What is an “image”) There existed great influence of Chinese poetry on the Imagist movement. Imagists found value in Chinese poetry was because Chinese poetry is, by virtue of the ideographic and pictographic nature of the Chinese language, essentially imagistic poetry. Significance 1. It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life of the new century. 2. It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poets but for modern poetry as a whole. 3. The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned their first lessons in the poetic art. 4. It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and American poetry. II. The Major Representatives of the Modern Poetry: Ezra Pound (1885- 1972) T.S.Eliot (1888 - 1965) Wallace Stevens (1879 -