Some Imagist Poets an Anthology

by Richard Aldington

In March, 1914, a volume appeared entitled "Des Imagistes." It was a collection of the work of various young poets, presented together as a school. This school has been widely discussed by those interested in new movements in the arts, and has already become a household word. Differences of taste and judgment, however, have arisen among the contributors to that book; growing tendencies are forcing them along different paths. Those of us whose work appears in this volume have therefore decided to publish our collection under a new title, and we have been joined by two or three poets who did not contribute to the first volume, our wider scope making this possible.

Genres: Poetry

38 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Edward Godfree Aldington was an English writer, poet, translator, critic, and biographer. He joined the British Army in 1916 and was wounded in 1918.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_...

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was nowhere near as good as I was expecting, and a lot of the poems were quite similar. I was also surprised at how twee a lot of D.H. Lawrence's work was; frankly, I expected more of him.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this Imagist anthology a lot more than Pound's.. It seemed to adopt a less restrictive perspective of Imagism, allowing for a larger variety of poets and poems to be featured. I enjoyed finally dipping my toes into the Imagist pool!

[J. Alfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know the story of the Imagist movement: Ezra Pound, on a whim, when sitting in the Tea Room of the British Museum with his ex-girlfriend Hilda from Pennsylvania and her new attachment Richard Aldgington, came up with the term, and later they wrote a manifesto about it, since such things were being done at the time. Then Amy Lowell, a rich New Yorker, took over the idea and formed her own group which excluded Pound, using Imagism as her calling card: Pound called the new(ish) brand of thing they were writing 'Amygism' and started playing around with Wyndham Lewis and what he called the Twentieth Century Vortex.
What you perhaps did not know is that Lowell printed, for three years, a yearly anthology of these later Imagists, and that you can find and read these anthologies. And if you only know the above part of the story, you may not know the following:
-DH Lawrence was a member and did some good work in the volumes (no turtle poems though)
-Aldington himself is a weak-kneed version of HD's stuff
-HD is a rock star: read in a group like this she's pretty clearly the single best thing they have going, and her single poem "Eurydice" stands clear of all challengers as the most clear and intense poem in a group who pride themselves on clarity and intensity
-Lowell herself is not a contemptible poet! Because the rest of the twentieth century hinges more or less around Pound, I had always thought she must be a joke of a byproduct. She's quite good in various formats, including the 'prose poem' that very few people can make anything of.

If nothing else, this is a good historical piece to get hold of.

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give 4 stars to F.S.Flint and Amy Lowell only - I loved ‘Fragment’ and ‘Venus Transiens,’ in particular.

[Jeff Streeby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very nice pieces by HD-- "Sea Iris" most notable for my money. This book also includes "The Mowers" by DH Lawrence-- a really fine piece. (5 stars) Aldington and Fletcher were not very appealing. (3 stars) Amy Lowell's pieces from "A Dome of Many-Colored Glass" were some that I knew and liked. (4 stars)

[A. Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the entire book but my dislike for imagist poetry only increased.