An introduction to Imagism

I took a closer look at Imagism and its characteristic features and also at some of the most important Imagists, their ideals and main ideas of this literary epoch.

The first chapter deals with the origins of Imagism and describes where the Imagist got their creeds from and why they would have them. The second article is based on the master essay which was written together with Marie-Christin Miebach, Beate Steindor, Mira Rick and Beate Wrobel for the final reader of the seminar. It is picturing the characteristic features and the distinctive properties of the Imagist period. It deals with the question “What is Imagism?”, describing the goals of a movement in poetry that flourished in Britain and the United States in the 1920s.

The last chapter attends to a short interpretation of the Imagist poem “The great figure” (1920) by the American poet William Carlos Williams. In addition to this interpretation I will dwell on the interrelation of this poem and a picture by Charles Demuth which is called “I saw the Figure Five in Gold”. This one was painted in 1928 and is obviously a work which was inspired by the poem of Williams.

A conclusion in the end will summarize all the important facts and special features of Imagism.