The period we are talking about mixes three literary movements we are going to describe briefly: Georgian Poetry, Imagism and War poetry.
·Georgian Poetry was the title of a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom.
Edward Marsh was the general editor of the series and the centre of the circle of Georgian poets (which included Rupert Brook). The period of publication was sandwiched between the Victorian era, with its strict classicism, and Modernism, with its strident rejection of pure aestheticism. The common features of the poems in these publications were romanticism, sentimentality and hedonism. The Georgians were born from the general conservative climate that prevailed in the first decade of the twentieth century resulted in patriotic and nationalistic issues often being addressed in the poetry of the period. They shared the desire for reintroducing the individual and depicting a personal response in their poetry. To do this, they commonly evoked the rural landscape rather than looking towards the city for inspiration because their beliefs were firmly entrenched in the traditional Romantic concept that individual subject is inextricably linked with the natural world.
'Georgian', which 'had been applied proudly by Marsh in 1912 to mean "new", "modern", "energetic" had, by 1922, come to connote only "old-fashioned", "outworn", or worse.
The Georgian movement was a reaction against the poetic establishment, quite informal, and not homogeneous. Besides, there are two phases in Georgian Poetry:
-Georgian phase proper: 1912-1915 volumes.
-Neo-Georgian phase.
Phase 1 is the real Georgian Poetry. In 1912, Georgian Poetry was hailed as symbolizing "the new rebellion in English poetry". Poets have in common to challenge the establishment, the current trends in poetry: Denial of individualism.
xxxxxxxxxVirtues of national identity and moral responsibilities.
xxxxxxxxx"Poetic diction", pompous poetry.
By contrast, the aims of Georgian Poetry in Phase 2 was to give a subjective personal response to personal concern to return to Wordsworth and to use a straightforward and casual language.
The Georgian general recommendation was the giving up of complex forms so that more people could read poetry. Georgian Poetry was to be English but not aggressively imperialistic, patheistic rather than atheistic, and as simple as a child's reading book.
The result was that, finally, Georgian Poets were mainly blamed for their traditionalism, for being escapists and for cultivating false simplicity.
·In America in 1912, the most common and popular poetry was called genteel because it was very well-behaved. Since they were "genteel", these poems avoided controversial and realistic subject matter like sex or industrialization. Instead, genteel poetry tended to consist of short, inoffensive, traditional verse about inward feelings, written in a deliberately purified, rather vague, "poetic" language.
Around 1912 in London, some British and American poets led by Ezra Pound started a poetic movement called Imagism. These poets reacted against genteel poetry, which they as sentimental, soft-edged, and emotionally dishonest. They also rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry.
Somewhat unusually for the time, the Imagists featured a number of women writers among their major figures.
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 a directness of presentation and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms.
In the preface to the anthology, "Some Imagist Poets" (1916), there is set down a brief list of tenets to which the poets contributing to it mutually agreed:
1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.
The language of common speech means a diction which carefully excludes inversions, and the cliches of the old poetic jargon. Common speech does not exclude imaginative language nor metaphor but it must be original and natural to the poet himself, not culled from older books of verse.
The exact word means the exact word which conveys the writer's impression to the reader (critics conceive a thing to be so and so and no other way; to the poet, the thing is as it appears in relation to the whole); it is the exact word to describe the effect. In short, the exactness is determined by the content.
2. To create new rhythms -as the expression of new moods- and not to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for a principle of liberty. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free-verse than in conventional forms. in poetry a new cadence means a new idea.
This refers to the modern practice of writing largely in the free forms. It is true that modern subjects, modern habits of mind, seem to find more satisfactory expression in vers libre and "polyphonic prose" than in metrical verse. It is also true that "a new cadence means a new idea." Not, as has been stated by hostile critics, that the cadence engenders the idea; quite the contrary, it means that the idea clothes itself naturally in an appropriate novelty of rhythm. The Imagist poets "do not insist upon free-verse as the only method of writing poetry."
3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art to write badly of aeroplanes and automobiles, nor is it necessarily bad art to write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic value of modern life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so uninspiring nor so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 1911.
It means that old, new, actual, literary, anything which excites the creative faculty in the individual poet, is permissible.
4. To present an image. We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real difficulties of his art.
"Imagist" refers more to the manner of presentation than to the thing presented. It is a kind of technique rather than a choice of subject. "Imagism" simply means a clear presentation of whatever the author wishes to convey. Imagism is presentation, not representation.
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
It must be kept in mind that this does not refer to subject but to the rendering of subject. Ornament may be employed, so long as it follows the structural bases of the poem; but poetical jig-saw work is summarily condemned. That is why, although so much Imagist poetry is metaphorical, similes are sparingly used. Imagists fear the blurred effect of a too constant change of picture in the same poet.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of poetry.
To remain concentrated on the subject, and to know when to stop, are two cardinal rules in the writing of poetry.
Perhaps because Pound began to see imagism as a "stylistic movement, a movement of criticism rather than creation", he soon moved beyond imagism to a new poetic movement he called vorticism. While the rules and "dont's" of imagism were designed to improve poetic writing but not necessarily to produce complete poems, vorticism was designed as a movement whose principles would apply to all the arts and be capable of producing complete works of art. Pound also wanted to add to the image further movement, dynamism, and intensity.
·War poetry is not a school of poetry in itself although it played a tremendous part since it inspired a new birth of inspiration. War had already been a subject for poetry but never with such feelings. However, the term 'war poetry' has strong internal tensions that often go unnoticed: it seems hard to imagine two human activities more unlike each other than experiencing a war and writing a poem.
But we have to bear in mind that the best war poets always know that they involve themselves in a monstrous negotiation between artistic plasure and human suffering. War poetry is attracted to pain, and makes artistic capital out of it.
A war poem represents the partial victory of unholy joy over shame. The war poem pays homage only to the impulse which produced it; although a war poem may seek to justify itself as a warning, or a bearing witness, or an act of compassion or catharsis or redress, its primary motivation is to celebrate its own achievement.
Edward Marsh was the general editor of the series and the centre of the circle of Georgian poets (which included Rupert Brook). The period of publication was sandwiched between the Victorian era, with its strict classicism, and Modernism, with its strident rejection of pure aestheticism. The common features of the poems in these publications were romanticism, sentimentality and hedonism. The Georgians were born from the general conservative climate that prevailed in the first decade of the twentieth century resulted in patriotic and nationalistic issues often being addressed in the poetry of the period. They shared the desire for reintroducing the individual and depicting a personal response in their poetry. To do this, they commonly evoked the rural landscape rather than looking towards the city for inspiration because their beliefs were firmly entrenched in the traditional Romantic concept that individual subject is inextricably linked with the natural world.
'Georgian', which 'had been applied proudly by Marsh in 1912 to mean "new", "modern", "energetic" had, by 1922, come to connote only "old-fashioned", "outworn", or worse.
The Georgian movement was a reaction against the poetic establishment, quite informal, and not homogeneous. Besides, there are two phases in Georgian Poetry:
-Georgian phase proper: 1912-1915 volumes.
-Neo-Georgian phase.
Phase 1 is the real Georgian Poetry. In 1912, Georgian Poetry was hailed as symbolizing "the new rebellion in English poetry". Poets have in common to challenge the establishment, the current trends in poetry: Denial of individualism.
xxxxxxxxxVirtues of national identity and moral responsibilities.
xxxxxxxxx"Poetic diction", pompous poetry.
By contrast, the aims of Georgian Poetry in Phase 2 was to give a subjective personal response to personal concern to return to Wordsworth and to use a straightforward and casual language.
The Georgian general recommendation was the giving up of complex forms so that more people could read poetry. Georgian Poetry was to be English but not aggressively imperialistic, patheistic rather than atheistic, and as simple as a child's reading book.
The result was that, finally, Georgian Poets were mainly blamed for their traditionalism, for being escapists and for cultivating false simplicity.
Around 1912 in London, some British and American poets led by Ezra Pound started a poetic movement called Imagism. These poets reacted against genteel poetry, which they as sentimental, soft-edged, and emotionally dishonest. They also rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry.
Somewhat unusually for the time, the Imagists featured a number of women writers among their major figures.
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 a directness of presentation and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms.
In the preface to the anthology, "Some Imagist Poets" (1916), there is set down a brief list of tenets to which the poets contributing to it mutually agreed:
1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.
The language of common speech means a diction which carefully excludes inversions, and the cliches of the old poetic jargon. Common speech does not exclude imaginative language nor metaphor but it must be original and natural to the poet himself, not culled from older books of verse.
The exact word means the exact word which conveys the writer's impression to the reader (critics conceive a thing to be so and so and no other way; to the poet, the thing is as it appears in relation to the whole); it is the exact word to describe the effect. In short, the exactness is determined by the content.
2. To create new rhythms -as the expression of new moods- and not to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for a principle of liberty. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free-verse than in conventional forms. in poetry a new cadence means a new idea.
This refers to the modern practice of writing largely in the free forms. It is true that modern subjects, modern habits of mind, seem to find more satisfactory expression in vers libre and "polyphonic prose" than in metrical verse. It is also true that "a new cadence means a new idea." Not, as has been stated by hostile critics, that the cadence engenders the idea; quite the contrary, it means that the idea clothes itself naturally in an appropriate novelty of rhythm. The Imagist poets "do not insist upon free-verse as the only method of writing poetry."
3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art to write badly of aeroplanes and automobiles, nor is it necessarily bad art to write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic value of modern life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so uninspiring nor so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 1911.
It means that old, new, actual, literary, anything which excites the creative faculty in the individual poet, is permissible.
4. To present an image. We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real difficulties of his art.
"Imagist" refers more to the manner of presentation than to the thing presented. It is a kind of technique rather than a choice of subject. "Imagism" simply means a clear presentation of whatever the author wishes to convey. Imagism is presentation, not representation.
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
It must be kept in mind that this does not refer to subject but to the rendering of subject. Ornament may be employed, so long as it follows the structural bases of the poem; but poetical jig-saw work is summarily condemned. That is why, although so much Imagist poetry is metaphorical, similes are sparingly used. Imagists fear the blurred effect of a too constant change of picture in the same poet.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of poetry.
To remain concentrated on the subject, and to know when to stop, are two cardinal rules in the writing of poetry.
Perhaps because Pound began to see imagism as a "stylistic movement, a movement of criticism rather than creation", he soon moved beyond imagism to a new poetic movement he called vorticism. While the rules and "dont's" of imagism were designed to improve poetic writing but not necessarily to produce complete poems, vorticism was designed as a movement whose principles would apply to all the arts and be capable of producing complete works of art. Pound also wanted to add to the image further movement, dynamism, and intensity.
·War poetry is not a school of poetry in itself although it played a tremendous part since it inspired a new birth of inspiration. War had already been a subject for poetry but never with such feelings. However, the term 'war poetry' has strong internal tensions that often go unnoticed: it seems hard to imagine two human activities more unlike each other than experiencing a war and writing a poem.
But we have to bear in mind that the best war poets always know that they involve themselves in a monstrous negotiation between artistic plasure and human suffering. War poetry is attracted to pain, and makes artistic capital out of it.
A war poem represents the partial victory of unholy joy over shame. The war poem pays homage only to the impulse which produced it; although a war poem may seek to justify itself as a warning, or a bearing witness, or an act of compassion or catharsis or redress, its primary motivation is to celebrate its own achievement.
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