20th century American Poets (I)
Imagism
Hao Guilian, Ph.D.
Yunnan Normal University
Fall, 2009
Ezra Pound (1885—1972)
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(1)born in Idaho,
raised in
Pennsylvania
(2)entered
University of Penn.,
studied Romance
languages
(3)traveled in Eu.
and lead the Imagist
movement
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(4)broke with Amy Lowell and lived in
Italy
(5)supported Mussolini in the second
world war and after the war he was jailed
because of betraying his motherland
(6)With the help of T. S. Elliot and some
other famous writers, he was released and
lived in hospital.
Major works
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“In a Station of the Metro”;
“A Pact”
“Cantos” (intellectual diary since 1915;
no single clue; divided into many
sections and each contributes to a
different theme; showing author’s point
of views on many aspects, such as
politics, economy, arts, culture etc.)
General style of Pound
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(1)He was influenced by Greek, Italy
and Chinese poets.
(2)He wrote some fresh short poems
and also some all-inclusive long poems.
(3)Personal tone; open and
spontaneous style
(4)Difficult to read and study; great
influence on modern poetry
In a Station of the Metro
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The apparition of these
faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black
bough.
人群中幽然浮现的一张张脸庞，
黝黑的湿树枝上的一片片花瓣。
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人群中这些脸庞的隐现；
湿漉漉、黑黝黝的树枝上
的花瓣。
（裘小龙 译）
梦幻众中面貌
黝湿枝上疏花
（周钰良 译）
In a Station of the Metro
1. The “Metro” is the underground railway of
Paris.
2. The word “apparition”, with its double
meaning, binds the two aspects of the
observation together:
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Apparition meaning “appearance”, in the
sense of something which appears, or shows
up; something which can be clearly observed.
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Apparition meaning something which seems
real but perhaps is not real; something
ghostly which cannot be clearly observed.
In a Station of the Metro
3. The poem is an observation of the poet of the human
faces seen in a Paris subway station. It looks to be a
modern adoption of the Japanese haiku.
4. He tries to render exactly his observation of human faces
seen in an underground railway station. He sees the
faces, turned variously toward light and darkness, like
flower petals which are half absorbed by, half resisting,
the wet, dark texture of a bough.
5. Repeating it, you can have a colorful picture, also you can
feel the beauty of music through it’s repetition of
different vowels and consonants, such as /p/ and /au/.
Especially the repetition of /e/ in the second line
emphasize it’s sense of music.
In a Station of the Metro
6. In this brief poem, Pound uses the fewest
possible words to convey an accurate image,
according to the principles of the “Imagists”.
Pound wrote an account of its composition,
which claims that the poem’s form was
determined by the experience that inspired
it, evolving organically rather than being
chosen arbitrarily.
7. Whether truth or myth, the piece has become
a famous document in the history of
Imagism.
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
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American poet and
physician. He wrote
stories, plays and
autobiographies as well
as poems. He met and
befriended Ezra Pound,
and was influenced by
Pound.
Poetic Features of William Carlos Williams
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Relaxed colloquialism
Vivid Presentation
Eloquent passages of beautifully
controlled rhythm and phrasing
His subject matter was centered on the
everyday circumstances of life and the
lives of common people.
The Red Wheelbarrow
So much depends
upon
那么多东西
依靠
a red wheel
barrow
一辆红色
手推车
glazed with rain
water
雨水淋得它
晶亮
beside the white
chickens.
旁边是一群
白鸡
William Carlos Williams
Archibald Macleish (1892-1982)
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[Poetry] gives
knowledge of the
chaos and confusion
of the world by
imposing order upon
it which leaves it still
the chaos and
confusion which it
really is.
--Archibald MacLeish
Ars Poetica 《诗艺》
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A poem should be palpable and  诗当了然澈
mute
缄如圆圆果
As a globed fruit
 无言自默默
Dumb
荣章今摩挲
As old medallions to the thumb
 静若阑干人久凭
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone 苔痕帘外生，罗袖将石破
Of casement ledges where the
moss has grown  诗当静无言
鸟雀自飞天。
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds
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A poem should be motionless in
time
As the moon climbs
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Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled
trees,
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Leaving, as the moon behind the
winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind -
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A poem should be motionless in
time
As the moon climbs
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诗当恍如凝
静中见月升
去似月拾枝
渐释幽中木
亦似皎月寒叶后
追忆萦心久，脉脉复悠悠
诗当恍如凝
静中见月升。
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A poem should be equal to:
Not true
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple
leaf
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights
above the sea -
A poem should not mean
But be
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诗当何所同？
恍恍太虚境
万古悲痛生
寥落门廊一叶枫
爱者知何成？
海生日月草身倾
无伤意及旨
诗当如本是。
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MacLeish greatly admired T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound,
and his work shows quite a bit of their influence.
MacLeish's early work was very traditionally
modernist and accepted the contemporary modernist
position holding that a poet was isolated from society.
His most well-known poem, "Ars Poetica," contains a
classic statement of the modernist aesthetic: "A
poem should not mean / But be." He later broke with
modernism's pure aesthetic. MacLeish himself was
greatly involved in public life and came to believe
that this was not only an appropriate but an
inevitable role for a poet.
Imagism
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Originating in the philosophy of T.E. Hulme, the
movement soon attracted Ezra Pound, who
became the leader of a small group opposed to
the romantic conception of poetry and inspired
by Greek and Roman classics and by Chinese,
Japanese, and modern French poets.
The imagist poets called for
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new rhythms,
clear images,
free choice of subject matter,
compressed poetic expression, and
use of common speech.
Major feature--1
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With a spirit of revolt against conventions, imagism was
anti-romantic and anti-Victorian.
It stressed free choice of subject matters (often dealing
with single, concentrated moments of experience),
concreteness of imagery, musical phrases, economy of
expression, and the use of a dominant image.
It aimed at instantaneous effect, visual and concise.
Imagists used the language of common speech and
employed exact words instead of the flowery language
of poetry.
They avoided all cliché expressions, the elaborate diction,
and complex verse forms of traditional poetry.
Major feature--2
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Imagism tried to record objective observations
of an object or a situation without
interpretation or comment by the poet.
Imagism required a poet to present just a
picture, not his insight.
It is very biological and very scientific. They
never stated the emotion in the poem, but just
presented an image: concrete, firm, definite in
picture. Any significance to be derived from the
image had to appear inherent in its clean
presentation.
A Chinese imagistic poetry:
Autumn
Evening crows perch on old trees wreathed with withered vine,
Water of a stream flows by a family cottage near a tiny bridge.
A lean horse walks on an ancient road in western breeze,
The sun is setting in the west,
The heart-broken one is at the end of the Earth.
《天净沙·秋思》
马致远
枯藤老树昏鸦，
小桥流水人家，
古道西风瘦马。
夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯。
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
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4 Pulitzer Prizes
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read poetry at a
presidential inauguration.
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received honorary degrees
from 44 colleges
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unofficial poet Laureate,
one of the most celebrated
American’s modernist
poets
Frost’s Quotes
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I'm not a teacher, but an
awakener.
I am a writer of books in
retrospect. I talk in order to
understand; I teach in
order to learn.
I never dared to be radical
when young for fear it
would make me
conservative when old.
I'm not confused. I'm just
well mixed.
Frost’s View and Theme
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His poetry concerns New England’s nature. He saw
nature as a storehouse of analogy and symbol, so his
concern with nature reflected deep moral uncertainties.
His poetry often probes mysterious of darkness and
irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an
indifferent universe.
The quest of the solitary person to make sense of the
world has become the central theme of all Frost’s
collections and made his poetry among the most
accessible of modern writers.
The poetry of Robert Frost combined pastoral imagery
with solitary philosophical themes.
About the Poem “The Road Not
Taken”
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Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend
Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times
in the woods near London. Frost has said that while
walking they would come to different paths and after
choosing one, Thomas would always felt wondering
what they might have missed by not taking the other
path.
About the poem, Frost asserted, “You have to be careful
of that one; it’s a tricky poem– very tricky.” Superficially,
the poem has been and continues to be used as an
inspirational poem, encouraging self-reliance, not
following where others have led. But a close reading of
the poem proves not so.
A tricky poem?
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The word “sigh” is a tricky word. Because sigh can be
interpreted into nostalgic relief or regret. If it is the relief
sigh, then the difference means the speaker feels glad
with the road he took. If it is the regret sigh, then the
difference would not be good, and the speaker would be
sighing in regret. Hence, sigh is ambigous here for the
speaker is not showing whether his choice is right or
wrong.
Actually, it does not moralize about choice, it simply says
that choice is inevitable but you never know what your
choice will mean until you have lived it. This is also the
theme of the poem.
“I took the one the less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”