This collection of 35 poems and short pieces of prose, published in 1914 was a delight from start to finish. It is stretching a point to call it an anthology as it would be more accurate to say it was a bunch of poems collected by Ezra Pound from friends and acquaintances on the literary scene, but, be that as it may, there are some gems here. Ezra worked hard to make this collection appear as a new movement in poetry; going in to print to define what it was to be an Imagiste.

Pound explains the tenets of imagism as the following:

"Direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective.
To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome."

Of course not all the poems have all or any of these things in common, although the overriding one is concentration on a single image. Most are written in free verse, most are fairly short, and many allude to the classics. I can also detect an underlying feeling of sensuality and even perhaps eroticism.

The first ten poems are by Richard Adlington and his use of classical allusions gives much of his work a feel of loss for a time now passed. (He would have been difficult to read for many people before the age of google, but now we can discover who or what those Greek Gods were at the touch of a button). There are some beautiful images in his poems that create an atmosphere, sometimes of sorrow, sometimes of death, sometimes of peace and tranquility, but underneath a sensual yearning for love or antiquity. His wife H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) who has seven poems uses the classical illusions for a more direct effect. Gods of the sea, Gods of fertility are at play in her poems, which are more adventurous in form. There are echoes, repetitions, short lines that sing most beautifully, she is particularly adept at catching the atmosphere of a shore line:

"Where sea-grass tangles with/shore-grass" are the final two lines of "Hermes of the Ways" which is one of my favourite poems in the collection.

Ezra Pound has included six of his own poems many of which reflect his interest in Japanese art and literature, they read like Haikus. Some are very fine indeed:

LIU CH'E
The Rustling of silk is discontinued,
Dust drifts over the courtyard,
There is no sound of footfall, and the leaves
Scurry into heaps and lie still,
And the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them:

A wet leaf that clings to the threshold.

There are a couple of curiosities; "Postlude" an early poem by William Carlos Williams does not seem to fit and it is one of the most puzzling. However the inclusion of James Joyce's "I Hear an Army" is an inspired decision. This is from the first manuscript published by Joyce in 1907 entitled "Chamber Music", which was a collection of poems that Joyce felt could be set to music and so fits well with some of the other poems in the Imagists collection. It is a fine poem with a haunting last line that might bring a resolution to what has gone before. We cannot be at all certain that "I Hear an Army" published as early as 1907 was any sort of a reference to the coming great war, but "The Rose" by John Cournos a prose poem I think does, with it's reference to proud Prussians and ships that founder in the waste. This poem has a beautiful central image of a rose flung into the sea and washed into the shore.

There is much to enjoy in this collection, and I think it would appeal to many readers, especially as it is free to dip into on the internet. It has made me want to explore further the work of H.D. and Richard Aldington and so for that alone it was worthwhile. The imagistes produced some fine images and for me this was a four star read. ( )