{"id":133,"date":"2017-02-11T07:21:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T07:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/?p=133"},"modified":"2017-02-12T05:41:16","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T05:41:16","slug":"ezra-pound-imagist-liar-stalker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/ezra-pound-imagist-liar-stalker\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezra Pound: Imagist. Liar. Stalker."},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know who Ezra Pound and H.D. are (it\u2019s totally okay if you don\u2019t, because I didn\u2019t at first either. Here\u2019s their photos so you get an idea of who we\u2019re talking about), but did we know that in one point in time they were romantically involved? Yeah, I know, crazy. Long, long, time ago before H.D. and Richard Aldington, we\u2019re going to call him R.A because that\u2019s what H.D. called him, ever existed. Pound met her at a party and let\u2019s just say they really hit it off there and became romantically involved. No one really knows why they stopped dating, they just did. I would bet it\u2019s because Pound is an obsessive-stalker guy, but we\u2019ll get more into that later.<\/p>\n

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H.D. and R.A. were falling in love with another right under Pound\u2019s nose, but he never could quite grasp that idea around his head. I find this extremely hard to believe because the two were inseparable. Convinced that Pound was just in denial at this point. In September of 1912, the couple, separately, attended the British Museum tea-room. Just because H.D. did not go to the tea-room with R.A. does not mean she did not go alone; she went with\u2026 you guessed it, Ezra Pound. I don\u2019t know about y\u2019all, but I would not be okay with my girlfriend coming to this kind of event on her ex-boyfriend\u2019s arm like a couple. Hey, that\u2019s just me. Back to the point. So while they were here, H.D. showed her poems to Pound and he was incredibly impressed. He signed them \u201cH.D. \u2018Imagiste\u2019\u201d and sent them off that October to Poetry<\/em>. Then Pound coined the phrase and term \u201cimagiste\u201d in 1912 and became the face of modern day poetry. Or did he?<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In November 1912, three of R.A.\u2019s poems appeared in Poetry as Imagist works, whereas H.D.\u2019s poems did not appear for another two months later in January 1913. Yikes! When we think imagist, we think Pound, not R.A. But the movement started even before the two of them. Plot twist. I know, I know. I\u2019m just dragging you all over the place with this one. The ideas were developed by T.E. Hulme along with the Poets\u2019 Club in 1908. He initially created the Poets\u2019 Club to further advance his ideas of image and expose and share this idea with other intellects of his time. They met once a month to share original pieces and everything, next thing you know, boom: the imagist movement. You\u2019re probably wondering how in the hell did R.A. and Pound get involved with imagism four years later. Well, Pound was introduced to the idea at the Caf\u00e9 Tour d\u2019Eiffel. This started Hulme and Pound\u2019s infamous feud. Majority of the tension comes from Pound trying to claim credit for Hulme\u2019s contribution to poetry and well after his death. (See, that\u2019s that obsessive thing I was talking about). As you can tell in the photo of Hulme below, he just looks like someone who is tired of Pound’s shit.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite who truly deserves to take credit for the idea, they all agreed on one thing: that the goal of imagist poetry was to observe, admire, and appreciate detail through words and rhetorical devices. Hulme believed that because image was the untouched material of experience, we should appreciate it as such. Pound expanded on this idea and set forth guidelines that defined imagist poetry. Can you believe this guy? Did even coin the damn phrase, but is going to determine what is and isn\u2019t imagist poetry. Somebody should have put a stop to his madness. Back to the point, one of those defining guidelines was \u201cto use absolutely no word that does contribute to the presentation\u201d to ensure exactness and precision in the description. Genius. Controlling, but genius. Speaking of Pound and all of his greatness, below is an example and excerpt from one of his pieces in \u201cIn a Station of the Metro\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The apparition of these faces in the crowd;<\/em><\/p>\n

Petals on a wet, black bough.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Ezra Pound<\/p>\n

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Here, Pound uses both descriptive and rhetorical devices to express to the audience the images he sees before him. Now, does that not sound exactly like the picture? That Ezra is good, I tell ya.<\/p>\n

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In 1914, an anthology about imagistes was created and edited by Pound (shocker) was published. Works in this included, you guessed it, R.A. and H.D. But by the time of the anthology, a new face was seen as the leader of the movement, and this time, it was a female! Her name was Amy Lowell and she basically stole the spotlight from all the men like women normally do. Of course Pound had some excuse to defend himself, once again. This time he was claiming that the only reason he even invented imagism was to launch H.D.\u2019s career. *room gasps*<\/p>\n

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How dare Pound take such credit?! Rumors say that this claim happened right after H.D. and R.A.\u2019s wedding. The couple actually expressed their discomfort with Pound\u2019s intrusive behaviors and actions in their respected books. Can you believe Pound moved in across the hall from them? Across the hall! (See! That\u2019s that stalker thing I was talking about earlier). Seriously Pound? You cannot possibly still be that<\/em> into her. Don\u2019t get me wrong, H.D. is a catch, but stalking? That\u2019s an all-time low; even for you. The two agreed that they worked best when Pound was at a distance. Rumors say that the \u201cinfluence\u201d Pound had on H.D. wearied off before it even started and that she\u2019s grown into a poet on her own. But he claimed to have helped lau\u2014okay.<\/p>\n

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What we\u2019ve learned today is that: the creator of imagism poetry still remains a mystery, imagism poetry is simplistic in it\u2019s message, but complex in its description, and Ezra Pound is a lunatic. You would think with his knowledge in imagery that he\u2019d be able to notice that he honestly looked crazy out there for all those years. I expected better from you Pound. We all did.<\/p>\n

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-D.C. Imagiste Enthusiast<\/p>\n

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“A Brief Guide To Imagism”.\u00a0A Brief Guide to Imagism<\/i>. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n

Brinkman, Bartholomew. “Making Modern “Poetry”: Format, Genre And The Invention Of Imagism(E).” Journal Of Modern Literature<\/em> 32.2 (2009): 20-40. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 31 Jan. 2017<\/p>\n

Castellitto, George P. “Imagism And Martin Scorsese: Images Suspended And Extended.” Literature Film Quarterly<\/em> 26.1 (1998): 23. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n

Drobot, Irina-Ana. “Two Versions Of Young Woman At A Window By William Carlos Williams: Which Version Is More Imagist?.” Scientific Journal Of Humanistic Studies<\/em> 6.11 (2014): 55-56. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n

Hakutani, Yoshinobu. “Ezra Pound, Yone Noguchi, And Imagism.” Modern Philology<\/em> 90.1 (1992): 46. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.<\/p>\n

Jackson, Wallace. “To Look”: The Scene Of The Seen In Edward Hopper.” South Atlantic Quarterly<\/em> 103.1 (2004): 133-148. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n

Skaff, William. “Pound’s Imagism And The Surreal.” Journal Of Modern Literature<\/em> 12.2 (1985): 185. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n

(Translator) Henri Bergson,\u00a0Introduction to Metaphysics,<\/em>\u00a0Macmillan (London, England), 1913.<\/p>\n

Zilboorg, Caroline. “HD And RA: Early Love And The Exclusion Of Ezra Pound”.\u00a0Imagists.org<\/i>. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know who Ezra Pound and H.D. are (it\u2019s totally okay if you don\u2019t, because I didn\u2019t at first either. Here\u2019s their photos so you get an idea of who we\u2019re talking about), but did we know that in one point in time they were romantically involved? Yeah, I know, crazy. Long, long, time … Continue reading Ezra Pound: Imagist. Liar. Stalker.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/poeticskewels3050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}