Imagism

im•ag•ism

a movement in early 20th-century English and American poetry that sought clarity of expression through the use of precise images.
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I actually just did a midterm in HKin in which there were a bunch of questions about fats, including glycolipids. Obviously it wasn't that in depth about it, so it was cool to find out what their purpose was.

I really liked your list of Chinese portmanteaus, too. I had heard about how the words and characters are made of combinations like that (like how "boy" is made up of the characters for "strength" and "field").
And, we actually talked about that in 20th century poetry the other day, so your post reminded me of a cool word I wanted to do today!

Imagism is a concept adapted by a whole slew of postmodernist poets where they focused mainly on concrete images and precise diction to get across the ideas in their poetry.

The "father" of imagism was Ezra Pound, seen here imitating Magneto from X-Men:



Pound started this poetic movement that focused on colloquial language conveying tangible images. In his poetry, he focused on direct treatment of the "thing" (whether as subject or object of the poem) and using rhythm as a sequence in a musical phrase rather than being bound by the tick of a metronome.

One of my favorites of his poems came from his later years when he began translating Japanese poetry into English. Pound valued the way that the Japanese characters and writing style would use images so clearly to represent both things and ideas.

"The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter"

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.

The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
      As far as Cho-fu-Sa.

                                               By Rihaku (Li T'ai Po)
[1915]

What I like so much about this poem is that never once does the speaker say she is sad or that she misses her husband. Everything is conveyed through the images of the poem.


Anyway, my weekend was really good. I got to see cousins that I haven't seen for a full year and got to introduce my girlfriend to most of my extended family. We had a lot of fun up at Whistler, playing BananaGrams, our annual family football game and taking a break from the stresses of school and work.

I hope your Thanksgiving was fun and I'm glad to hear your midterm went so well! I've only got a few this semester, but I got some papers I need to start pretty soon (yikes!).

See ya,
-Clayton