Imagism has played an important role in shifting the way poets write a poem as it focused more on the images rather than the theme of a poem. Some of the modernist poets began focusing on imagery by describing things in simple and few words and not focusing on the themes behind the images in poem, instead they let the image itself be the focus of the poem. It is like emerging languages with picture in order to create an image that stimulates the mind of the reader. It is considered as a way used to free poetry from its main standards. Poets have presented images that they have encountered in their lives, by displaying them in an intensive way that influences the reader leaving him mesmerized by the beauty of the image and its powerfulness.
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Imagists tried to compose their poetry in the clearest way possible. One of the main features of Imagist poetry is the directness in its diction, poets tried to choose the most direct and straightforward words without elaboration. In other words, poets used less and exact words to deliver their ideas to readers. Debritto states that, “Imagists resorted to the exact word to achieve this, resulting in a hardness, as of cut stone. Incorporating direct speech into poetry, or straight talk as Pound called it, was also one of their main goals. By turning poetry into a spoken art, common speech became their new unit of rhythm. Trivial, commonplace topics were as valid as precious Greek urns or elusive nightingales. Abstraction was to be avoided at all costs” Harmer mentions that, “The exact word does not mean the word which exactly describes the object in itself, it means the exact word which brings the effect of that object before the reader as it presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of wiring the poem” (p.46). What is important is to use the word that brings out the effect of the object to the reader. The second feature is concrete imagery. Justine T. Kao and Dan Jurafsky elaborate that, “Imagists put great emphasis on depicting concrete, specific objects and avoiding abstractions and generalizations” (p.6). The third feature is emotional language, how poets use certain words to evoke certain feelings in the
Imagists tried to compose their poetry in the clearest way possible. One of the main features of Imagist poetry is the directness in its diction, poets tried to choose the most direct and straightforward words without elaboration. In other words, poets used less and exact words to deliver their ideas to readers. Debritto states that, “Imagists resorted to the exact word to achieve this, resulting in a hardness, as of cut stone. Incorporating direct speech into poetry, or straight talk as Pound called it, was also one of their main goals. By turning poetry into a spoken art, common speech became their new unit of rhythm. Trivial, commonplace topics were as valid as precious Greek urns or elusive nightingales. Abstraction was to be avoided at all costs” Harmer mentions that, “The exact word does not mean the word which exactly describes the object in itself, it means the exact word which brings the effect of that object before the reader as it presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of wiring the poem” (p.46). What is important is to use the word that brings out the effect of the object to the reader. The second feature is concrete imagery. Justine T. Kao and Dan Jurafsky elaborate that, “Imagists put great emphasis on depicting concrete, specific objects and avoiding abstractions and generalizations” (p.6). The third feature is emotional language, how poets use certain words to evoke certain feelings in the