Describe the imagist movement in early twentieth-century poetry

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The imagists were the leaders in the search for a more concentrated style of expression. A group of poets, the imagists were English-language writers who sought to carve away all extraneous matter in a process of abstraction that aimed to arrive at an intrinsic or essential form. Verbal compression, formal precision, and economy of expression were the goals of the imagists. Renouncing traditional verse forms, fixed meter, and rhythm, their style of free verse became notorious for its abrupt and discontinuous juxtaposition of images.
Ezra Pound, a leading imagist, outlined the cardinal points of the imagist doctrine: poets should use "absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation"; and they should employ free verse rhythms "in sequence of the musical phrase." Ultimately, Pound summoned his contemporaries to cast aside traditional modes of Western verse-making and "make it new." The imagist search for an abstract language of expression stood at the beginning of the Modernist revolution in poetry. It also opened the door to a more concealed and elusive style of poetry, one that drew freely on the cornucopia of world literature and history.