Book Review: "Imagist Poetry" ed. by Peter Jones

Hopefully you and I can skim over the legacy of the poet Ezra Pound, who was basically the leader of this movement, and concentrate on what the movement itself was actually about. Imagism: a subculture of poetry focused on deliberate imagery, blossoming in the early 20th century at roughly the same time as Modernism and including a whole range of poets that we've probably heard of, and some that fell into obscurity. I was quite surprised that I became interested in this anthology but I've been waiting a whole long damn time to read it, so here we are.

The book opens with Edward Storer's Image poem where we see two lovers in a physical image representing the love between the two people in a metaphorical way. In only three lines, he is able to create a recurring image of fire to present the reader with meaning to their love and how they combat loneliness. I am often quite impressed with short poems that are able to create such incredible images mainly because I take forever to do so.

I've also noticed that imagist poets like writing about autumn. This is perfect for this time of year because of course, it is the autumnal season. There's a poem by T.E Hulme called Autumn which is perhaps the perfect way to start. I'm not sure why this poem didn't serve as the opening to the anthology but I'm sure that Image is a great initial writing too. The images in this poem though are not those of love but rather of the feelings made flesh. The touch of cold is physical but also sets us up for the mood, the atmosphere and the tone. The fact that the poem is a few lines but only two sentences means we have a lot of punctuation, moments of pause and reflection which are purposeful. There are quite a few colours and symbols in which similes resides, helping us to contextualise the feeling of autumn on the skin and in the air. This is perhaps my favourite poem from the whole anthology because of the way it makes us feel so intensely for such a short amount of time. It is as though the seasons come and go like this - faster and faster the older we get.

Another autumnal poem I enjoyed was Autumn Rain by DH Lawrence (yes, there are a few from him within the anthology). This poem concerns the way in which atmosphere is created throughout the autumn and begins with the falling of leaves which are already wet with the rain. So, instead of showing us that the rain is starting and the atmosphere is changing, Lawrence drops us directly into the middle of the rain when the leaves are already wet and instead of it being beautiful, everything seems a bit blackened and gross. But, as the poem goes on, it does turn into something quite beautiful and spiritual for the speaker and the rain becomes like tears from heaven, proving that even in the midst of the storm, the image can shift into something spectacular and introspective. This has to be another one of the great poems in this anthology. I'm not going to lie but I'm biased because I have a soft spot for DH Lawrence. Back in my university days, I'd sit in a cafe in the city centre before my second train and sip french coffee whilst reading from a gorgeous copy of Sons and Lovers. It was all very serene. Autumn Rain is no different. This is a man of great writing talent.

There are other great poems in this anthology too. One of which is written by William Carlos Williams called Portrait of a Lady where he compares a woman's body to nature. And, by the end of the anthology, you will definitely understand why people loved this era so much. With a great amount similes, metaphors and images which often contain conceits, this anthology gives the correct amount of atmosphere needed to envision to writer's perspective. I have to say though, I was actually more hopeful to see more than one section of the anthology containing the poems of DH Lawrence. Including his enigmatic but beautiful poem Green.