Symbolism & Imagism

1. Symbolism & Imagism Lesson 1 Modernism

2. Symbolism • Symbolism – movement that originated in late 19th century France • Writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful version of reality. • Symbolists believed that direct statements of feeling were inadequate. • Instead, they called for new and striking imaginative images to evoke complexities of meaning and mood. • Symbolist poets did not merely describe objects, they tried to portray the emotional effects that objects can suggest • Unlike symbolism, they wanted to get rid of symbols because they were dull and meaningless • A new manifestation of Romanticism (minus the spiritual renewal in nature) – Symbolists believed science had robbed nature of its mystery • The French symbolists were influenced by the poetry and critical writings of the American writer Edgar Allen Poe. • Leading symbolists include Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot

3. Imagism • Imagism • 20th century movement in European and American poetry that advocated the creation of hard, clear images concisely expressed in everyday speech. • Poets believed poetry can be made purer by concentration on the precise, clear, unqualified image. • Believed imagery could carry a poem’s emotion and message. • They could do this without all the elaborate metrics, stanza patterns, and prettiness • Free verse – a common characteristic of imagism • Proposed “the exact word” – use the language of the common speech, replacing the decorative word • Flourished in the years 1912-1917 in the U.S. • These years were also marked by great industrial and economic growth, peak, imagination, and a world war. • Leading imagists include Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams