Modernism & Imagism

Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams

Teaching Objectives

Modernism & Imagism Ezra Pound & “In a Station of the Metro” William Carlos Williams & “ The Red Wheelb

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Modernism (1) The 20th century did not begin until the second decade, t

he first being just a continuation of the last century. Two things made 1910s and 1920s different from other periods: WWI and the sense of life being dislocated and fragmented.

WWI WWI was the biggest event of the time. People went into

it with extreme enthusiasm, inspired by the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. The War really made US richer, a sense of finding money everywhere. There appeared an economic boom and a sudden jump in technology. People’s horizons were widened to increase their knowledge. At the same time, old moral values were breaking down—bobbed hair, short skirts, women drinking and smoking.

On the other hand, there was a tremendous disillusionment because nothing had changed. There was a popular contempt for the law—the prohibition of alcohol, bootleggers, etc. The dream had failed and the country was building up economic troubles toward disaster. A loss of faith began with Darwin’s theories of evolution. Without faith man could no longer keep his feeling and thought whole; hence a sense of life being fragmented and chaotic. Without faith, man no longer felt secure and happy; hence the feeling of gloom and despair.

Disillusionment

What is an image?

T. E. Hulme: The image must enable one “to dwell and linger upon a point of excitement, to achieve the impossible and convert a point into a line”.

Ezra Pound: An image is “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time”.( 情感和理智瞬间的融合）

Richard Aldington: The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.

Imagism (1908-1917)

The Imagist Movement began in London and later spread to the US. It underwent three major phases in its development:

1908—1911An Englishman, T. E. Hulme, founded a Poets’ Club in 1908, which poets met every Wednesday evening to discuss poetry. He believed that the most effective means to express the momentary impressions is through “the use of one dominant image”.

1912—1914Ezra Pound took over the movement. In 1912, they published a collection of poems, entitled Des Imagistes, in which a manifesto came into being. a. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or

objective; b. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to

the presentation; c. As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of t

he musical phase, not in the sequence of a metronome( 节拍器 ).

1914—1917

Amy Lowell took over the movement and developed it into “Amygism”. In 1915, 1916, 1917, three volumes of Some Imagist Poets came out. After 1917, Imagism ceased to be a movement.

Literary Sources of Imagism The Imagist Movement drew from a variety of poetic tradit

ions—Greek, Japanese and Chinese poetry. The ideographic ( 表意的 )and pictographic （表形的 ) nature of Chinese language, which characterize ancient Chinese poetry fascinated the Imagists.

Evaluation However, a dominant image is incapable of sustaining a l

onger poetic effort. Thus no great poetry came out. Nevertheless, it was a rebellion against the tradition and offered a new way of writing.

A Typical Chinese Imagist Poem

AutumnEvening crows perch on old trees wreathed with withered vine,Water of a stream flows by a family cottage near a tiny bridge.

A lean horse walks on an ancient road in western breeze,The sun is setting in the west,

The heart-broken one is at the end of the Earth.

《天净沙 · 秋思》马致远

枯藤、老树、昏鸦，小桥、流水、人家， 古道、西风、瘦马，夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯。

Representatives of Imagism

T. E. Hulme: “Autumn” F. S. Flint: “The Swan” Hilda Doolittle: “Oread” Amy Lowell: “Wind and Silver” William Carlos Williams: “The R

ed Wheelbarrow” Ezra Pound: “In a Station of the

Metro”

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Born in 1885 and raised in Pennsylvania, Ezra Pound spent most of his life in Europe and became one of the 20th century's most influential and controversial poets in the English language.

Pound was undoubtedly a genius. Before he graduated from university, he had mastered 9 languages as well as English grammar and literature.

Ezra Pound Enamored with Benito Mussolini, Pound made anti-Ameri

can radio broadcasts during World War II. He was arrested as a traitor in 1945 and initially confined in Pisa. He was then sent to the U.S., where he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for treason.

Pound was confined for 12 years in a hospital (actually prison) for the criminally insane in Washington. During this time he translated works of ancient Greek and ancient Chinese literature. While in prison, he was awarded a prestigious poetry prize in 1949 for his last Cantos （诗章） .

Pound’s Major Works Pound wrote70 books and over 1500 articles in his life. His major work of poetry is The Cantos, a long poem

which he wrote in sections between 1915 and 1945.

a. In this poem, he traces the rise and fall of eastern and western empires, the destruction caused by greed and materialism.

b. He deplores the corruption of America after the heroic time of Jefferson.

c. The last part, produced from his own suffering, is the most moving.

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

How did this poem come about?

“Three years ago in Paris I got out of a ”metro“ train at La Concorde, and saw suddenly a beautiful face, and then another and another, and then a beautiful child’s face, and then another beautiful woman….A year later I made the following haiku（俳句） —by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

《在地铁站中》的创作来源 三年前在巴黎，我在协约车站走出了地铁车厢。突然间，我

看到了一个美丽的面孔，然后又看到了一个，然后是一个美丽儿童的面孔，然后又是一个美丽的女人，那一天我努力寻找能表达我的感受的文字，我找不到我认为能与之相称的，或者像那种突发情感那样可爱的文字。那天晚上，我还在努力寻找的时候，忽然找到了表达方式，并不是说我找到了一些文字，而是出现了一个方程式。不是用语言，而是用许多颜色的小斑点。这种“一个意象的诗”，是一个叠加形式，即一个概念叠在另一个概念之上。我发现这对我摆脱那次在地铁的情感所造成的困境很有用。我写了一首 30 行的诗，然后销毁了，一个月后，我又写了比那首短一半的诗，一年后我写了这首日本俳句式的诗句。 （黄晋凯 译）

Study Objects

What subjects does the poet intend to present? What are the imagined objects? In what ways do the subjects in reality resemble the imagined objects ?

What are the metaphors? What other figures of speech does the poet employ?

What are the skills employed by the poet? What are the themes exemplified in the poem?

The apparition of these faces

in the crowd.

Apparition1. A ghostly figure; a specter.幽灵；幻影2. A sudden or unusual sight.突然景象，特异景象3. The act of appearing; appearance.出现，显形：出现的行为；露面

Faces in the crowd appear suddenly like the ghostly phantom

（幻影）

I. What subjectssubjects does the poet intend to present?

1.Faces of women and children (suddenly, beautiful)

2. The crowd in the metro station

II. What are the central imagescentral images presented in the poem?

Petals on a wet, black bough

III. How are the subjectssubjects in reality related to the imagesimages in the poem?

The subjects that the poet intends to present are related to the images in the poem in five aspects:

1.Shapes2.Colors3.Feelings4.Movements5.Contrasts between each

subject/image

A wet, black boughbough Shape: long, thick Color: black, dark Feeling: wet, cold Movement: still, dull （呆滞的）

Crowd in the long, dark, wet metro station

Petals

shape: round, oval or pointed color: bright (pink, white, yellow, etc) feeling: warm movement: flickering ( 摇曳，忽隐忽现 ) in the breeze（ daffodils “fluttering and dancing in the breeze ）Lovely facesfaces of women and children flashingflashing in the dark and wet metro stationmetro station

apparition

III. What are the effects of such connections?

1.Transcend time limits: from present faces to imagined petals

Transcend space limits: from a metro station to a bough

(from reality to an imaginative world)2. Vagueness between subjects being described a

nd images in the poem broadens the imagination

3. Contrast and feeling are reinforced

Figures of Speech and Skills

Metaphor: the metro station and bough; faces and petals Alliteration: black bough Synecdoche: faces Skil: superposition ( 意象的叠加 ） vertical 纵向的 and juxt

aposition ( 意象的并置 ） horizontal 横向的 叠加的艺术手法不是庞德的发明，而是深受中国的古典诗歌

的影响。 白居易的“玉容寂寞泪阑干，梨花一枝春带雨” （形式、内容和艺术手法极为相似） 马戴的“落叶他乡村，寒灯独夜人” 辛弃疾的“照影溪梅，怅绝代佳人独立”

Themesa. the theme is the poet’s sudden pleasure of findin

g the beautiful things among the crowd. It’s about the appraisal of beatuy.

b.it’s also about the momentary of beauty more topics: man’s existence and man’s alienation the threat of death the threat of war

Translation

地铁车站 人群中这些面庞的闪现； 湿漉的黑树干上的花瓣。（赵毅衡）

在地铁车站 这几张脸在人群中幻景般闪现； 湿漉漉的黑树枝上花瓣数点。（飞白）

人群里这些脸忽然闪现； 花丛在一条湿黑的树枝。（流沙河）

人群中，这些面孔的魅影； 潮湿的黑树枝上的花瓣。（余光中）

地铁站上 这些面庞从人群中涌现 湿漉漉的黑树干上花瓣朵朵（郑敏）

李白：长干行 妾发初覆额，折花门前居。郎骑竹马来，绕床弄青梅。同居长干里，两小无嫌猜。十四为君妇，羞颜未尝开。低头向暗壁，千唤不一回。十五始展眉，愿同尘与灰。常存抱柱信，岂上望夫台！十六君远行，瞿塘滟预堆。五月不可触，猿鸣天上哀。门前迟行迹，一一生绿苔。苔深不能扫，落叶秋风早。八月蝴蝶来，双飞西园草。感此伤妾心，坐愁红颜老。早晚下三巴，预将书报家。相迎不道远，直至长风沙。

William Carlos Williams

No ideas but in thingsNo ideas but in things

The Poet’s Ideas

Williams's ideas were basically humanistic: respect yourself and others, love those you can, and try to make the world a better place.

He tried to live up to these ideals through both his writing and his medical practice.

The Poet’s Ideas

In shaping his idea of what this new poetry should be, Williams emphasized four qualities.

The first was the use of commonplace subjects and themes.

The second was the use of everyday speech language.

The Poet’s Ideas

The third attribute for the new poetry was specificity.

Fighting against what he called aboutness, Williams coined the phrase ""No ideas but in No ideas but in things."things." (the fourth principle). This meant that his poetry made its point by focusing attention on concrete reality.

Major Poems

The Red Wheelbarrow 1926 This is Just to Say 1927 Spring and All The Great Figure

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much dependsupon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens.

Backgrounds

While caring for a sick child at the child’s home, Williams wrote "The Red Wheelbarrow" in less than five minutes while observing a scene out of the window. “The Red Wheelbarrow” is William’s best imagistic poem, in which the poet tried to convey a simple experience through sheer simplicity of statement. The poem only contains sixteen simple words in eight lines. Actually it’s just one sentence “ so much depends on a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens.” Yet it appeals to the imagination and forces the reader to visualize and derive an aesthetic pleasure from reading it.

Discussion Questions

So much depends on what? （ a wheelbarrow, whitechickens, rainwater)

Why are “wheelbarrow” and “rainwater” cut into “wheel barrow” and “rain water”?

What is the function of the last two lines?

Suggested Answers to Question 1 So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow. This is the

words in the poem say. (A wheelbarrow is used for a number of important farm chores---- moving the tools from the barn to the house and back, transporting feed to the cows and chickens, carrying seeds for planting. Without the wheelbarrow. many farming work cannot be finished.)

But when you have a second look at the poem, you may notice the fact that the poem is composed of one sentence broken up at various intervals, and then you may say “so much depends upon” each line of the poem.

Suggested Answers to Question 2 the word”wheelbarow” is separated between th

e word”wheel” and “barrow”. This has the effect of breaking the image down to its most basic parts, and you are made to feel as though you were scrutinizing each part of the scene. The wheel plus the barrow equals the wheelbarrow, and in the freshness of light after the rain.(glazed with rain).

Here williams uses the sentence as a painter uses line and color, and break up the words in order to see the object more closely.

Suggested Answers to Question 3

lines 7-8 offer up the final brushstroke to this “still life” poem. Another color, “white” is used to contrast the earlier “red”, and the unusual view of the ordinary wheelbarrow is complete. With careful word choice, attention to language, and unusual stanza breaks Williams has turned an ordinary sentence into a poem “with no ideas but in things”.

（颜色的对比突出了静与动，白色的鸡的出现使得画面生动起来，也使劳作者忘记了辛劳。）

Skills Enjambment (跨行连续法）：诗人为了达

到自己所要求的效果，将一句话分为几个连续的诗行。

此首诗在排列上长短相间，由此造成诗行音节上的长短，形成音乐感。突出了人与自然，劳苦与安逸，生命与回归，紧张与舒缓的自然对应关系。

译本（ 1 ）分析 红色手推车

　　 （美）威廉 ·卡洛斯 ·威廉斯

　　 一群 　　白色的鸡雏旁 　　 　　一辆 　　红色的手推车 　　 　　雨水中 　　晶莹闪亮 　　 　　承载着 　　如许分量 清华大学 覃学岚译

译本（ 2 ）分析红色手推车

　　 （美）威廉 ·卡洛斯 ·威廉斯

　　这么多的事物都依赖 　　于 　　 　　那一辆红色轮子的手 　　推车 　　 　　它湿漉漉的沾满雨 　　水 　　 　　站在一群 　　白色的小鸡旁边 郑敏 译

Homework: self-study (E. E Cummings)

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