Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A literary movement launched by British and American poets in the early 1900s that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of poetry utilising precise imagery and clear language

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a movement by American and English poets early in the 20th century in reaction to Victorian sentimentality; used common speech in free verse with clear concrete imagery

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

image +‎ -ism

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word imagism.

Examples

  • We were imagism, cubism, the conventicles and sects respected now by credulous universities.

    Ulysses, Ulysses, soaring through all the galaxies 2009

  • I just finished a horrific literature class about the use of minimalism in post modern writing where my teacher degraded me in the most vitriolic manner because my style is so rooted in imagism.

    Three Techniques to Avoid Being a Boring Writer | Write to Done 2009

  • We were imagism, cubism, the conventicles and sects respected now by credulous universities.

    June « 2009 « Sentence first 2009

  • Meanwhile, the other top two books are both by I think white poets -- one is overtly "political poetry" and the other is lyrical imagism.

    Archive 2010-02-01 2010

  • Meanwhile, the other top two books are both by I think white poets -- one is overtly "political poetry" and the other is lyrical imagism.

    THOUGHTS ABOUT JUDGING POETRY (#6) 2010

  • This second work dealt with many biblical themes and reflected the influence of Jewish culture, as well as imagism and Japanese haiku.

    Babette Deutsch. 2009

  • It can be a particularly valuable introduction to Wordsworth, whose directness of statement is better judged by the standards of song lyrics than of imagism.

    Abstracts 2002

  • The relation between imagism and immortality is so obvious as to be invisible.

    The Joys of Being a Woman and Other Papers 1918

  • He is the poet for people who feel the magic of music and the grandeur of imagination, without being able to lay their finger on the more recondite nuances of "creative work," without so much as ever having heard of "imagism."

    Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations John Cowper Powys 1917

  • Miss Lowell's "Patterns" is one of the most effective of contemporary poems, but it is far more than a document of imagism.

    A Study of Poetry Bliss Perry 1907

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.