Exploring Imagism in Poetry: Criteria and Analysis

1. Bell Ringer 1/10 • Please get out your Imagist Criteria List (the list we composed yesterday after reading “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”). • What do you believe is the most important item on the list? • Decide with a partner and be able to explain yourself. • Pd. 1, 2, 7, 9

2. English III • EQ: How can we use strong and thorough textual evidence to support what imagist poetry says both explicitly and implicitly? • Agenda • Bell Ringer: Review Question • Agenda/EQ Notes • Imagist Poetry • Listing Imagist Criteria • The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter

3. The Innovators (Ezra Pound) • What historical events influenced the poetry the innovators wrote? • What made the writings of the innovators so different from poetry in the past? • What was Ezra Pound’s greatest contribution to American Poetry?

4. Imagism • Literary movement established in the early 1900s by Ezra Pound and other poets. • Concentrated on the direct presentation of images, or word pictures. • Poems expressed the essence of an object, person, or incident, without providing explanations. • Hoped to freeze a single moment in time and to capture the emotions of that moment.

5. Imagism • Used the language of everyday speech, carefully choosing each word. • Shied away from traditional poetic patterns, focusing on creating new, musical rhythms. • Strongly influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry (haiku and tanka). • Evoke an emotional response through the presentation of a single image or a pair of contrasting images.

6. Vocabulary • Complex:a core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status. • Abstract: existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. • Concrete: existing in a material or physical form; real or solid • Verse: writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme • Prose: written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure, "a short story in prose" • Philosophic: relating or devoted to the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.

7. Imagist Poetry Criteria List • Get back into your earlier groups of 3. • Each member should get a sheet of composition paper. • Create a list of criteria for Imagist poetry. • They can be either do’s or don’ts • Try to find at least 8 items • 3 of those can be Mr. Flint’s rules. • We will finalize our list together

8. Imagist Poetry Criteria List • Direct treatment of the “thing” • Use no word that does not contribute to presentation (all words reveal something) • Compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not a metronome • The rhythm should flow from one line to the next • Give feelings of liberation or sudden growth • Use concrete images, no abstractions • Avoid writing philosophic poetry • Present the image, don’t describe • Use surprising rhyme • Find the exact word that will achieve your goal

9. The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter • With your group members, read “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” • Using our list of Imagist Poetry Criteria, answer the following question: • Does Ezra Pound actually create the kind of poetry he describes in “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste?” • Write a thorough paragraph that answers the question. • Give at least 3 pieces of evidence from the poem (including explanation) to support your answer. • You will also need to use some material from “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste.”

10. Bell Ringer 1/10 • Today we will be finishing our Holiday/Winter Story readings. • Cory • Kendra • Blakely • Marie

11. Creative Writing • EQ: How do authors use narrative techniques to convey a vivid picture of experiences, events, settings, and characters? • Agenda • Bell Ringer – Preparing Our Groups • Agenda/EQ • Story Sharing • Reading the Top 5 • Pacing • Please be able to answer the following questions on Monday: • What is “pacing”? • When should you speed up and slow down your pacing? • How can you speed up and slow down your pacing? • Quiz on Monday