Ezra Pound Contra Metaphorical Imagery: Imagism, “Concrete Directness,” and New Criticism

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10026017

Keywords:

Ezra Pound, modernist poetry, imagisme, vorticism, French symbolism, vers libre, metaphorical vs. concrete imagery, New Criticism

Abstract

Having argued for a concrete, direct, and pristine sense of imagery freed from metaphors, the Imagist movement (1913-1917) established concrete directness and the economy of language as its main principles. Under the influence of literary figures such as W. B. Yeats, Ford Madox Ford, and T. E. Hulme that Ezra Pound had met during his London years, this movement added on the ideas included in Pound’s Vorticist period and constituted the essential core of his collages used in his Cantos. This article has the aim of contextualizing the primary ideas, activities, and spheres of influence that shaped the Imagist movement, by also giving voice to the negative remarks uttered by the New Critics with regard to Pound’s poetry and imagism. Having overlooked the ideas of collage imagery and direct concreteness, the scholars of New Criticism often accused Pound of being meaningless, convoluted, and incoherent. Yet, even in his later works, not only did Pound prioritize concrete/objective and direct imagery, but also continued this vision in his late Cantos.

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Published

18.10.2023

How to Cite

Balıkcıoğlu, Efe Murat. 2023. “Ezra Pound Contra Metaphorical Imagery: Imagism, ‘Concrete Directness,’ and New Criticism”. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 5 (October):105-33. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10026017.

Issue

Section

Research Article (Off Topic)