Page 65 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes

In the words of T. S. Eliot: “The point de repere usually and conveniently taken as the
starting-point of modern poetry is the group denominated ‘imagists’ in London about
1910.”

At the time Imagism emerged, Longfellow and Tennyson were considered the paragons of poetry,
and the public valued the sometimes moralising tone of their writings. In contrast, Imagism called
for a return to what were seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation and
economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms. The
focus on the “thing” as “thing” (an attempt at isolating a single image to reveal its essence) also
mirrors contemporary developments in avant-garde art, especially Cubism. Although Imagism
isolates objects through the use of what Ezra Pound called “luminous details”, Pound’s Ideogrammic
Method of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an abstraction is similar to Cubism’s manner of
synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.

6.6 Summary

• The word Victorian has come to be used to describe a set of moral and sexual values.
• The Victorian Compromise was a complex and contradictory era. It was the age of progress,
stability, great social reforms but it was also charactersised by poverta, injustice and social
unrest.
• “Art for art’s sake” is the usual English rendering of a French slogan, from the early 19th
century.
• The British decadent writers were much influenced by the Oxford professor Walter Pater and
his essays published during 1867–68.
• Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored preci-
sion of imagery and clear, sharp language.

6.7 Keywords
Volatile : Ciable to change rapidly and unpredictably.
Philanthropy : The desire to promote the welfare of others.

Instigator : Bring about.
Topology : The way in which constituent parts are arranged.
Aesthetic : Concerned with beauty.

6.8 Review Questions
1. Examine the concepts of the victorian compromise.
2. Explain the term pre-raphaelite poetry.
3. Define aestheticism. Explain the term aesthetic literature.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. Queen Victoria 2. Volatile 3. Moral and Sexual
4. Oxford 5. Imagism

58 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY