Ezra Pound, Imagism, and Japanese Poetics

Abstract

It is commonplace to say that imagism played a crucial role in poetic modernism and that Ezra Pound, more than anyone else, put this poetics to practice in the 1910s. Yet imagism still remains a somewhat cloudy topic. Many discussions content themselves with restatements of Pound’s celebrated essay on vorticism, published in September 1914 (“Vorticism” 461–71). Even Hugh Kenner, the most eminent critic of Pound, says, “The history of the Imagist Movement is a red herring.” He admonishes one “to keep one’s eyes on Pound’s texts, and avoid generalities about Imagism” (Kenner 58).