Imagism: a movement active in England and America in the early 20th Century (1909-early 1920s). Imagery: The collective set of images in a poem or other literary work.
(2) Pound, in the context of Imagism, famously defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” In general, an image is a direct or literal recreation of sensory experience and adds immediacy to literary language. Ordinarily, images appeal to sight (visual image), but they may also appeal to hearing (auditory), smell (olfactory), touch (tactile), and taste (gustatory).
Image: (1) a word or series of words that refer to any sensory experience. See also “words-in-freedom” and “wireless imagination.” The movement involves a break with the past, and it glorifies speed, technology (factories, bridges, automobiles, locomotives, airplanes), energy, struggle, aggression, and masculinity. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition.” ( Poetry Foundation)įuturism: an early 20th Century (1909-1944) artistic and social movement that originated in Italy but extended to Russia (and elsewhere).
For instance, the following excerpt from H.D.’s “Mid-Day” forms one sentence divided between two enjambed lines: “I am scattered like / the hot shriveled seeds.”įorm: how the content is organized or conveyed (rhythm, line length, typography, visual appearance, use of repetition, medium, etc.)įree verse: (also vers libre) “Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. “Diction” may be used in reference to a particular word choice as well as to the overall style of a piece of literature.Įnjambment: “the running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation” ( Poetry Foundation). For instance, the /k/ sound in “chalk” and “cook” or the /t/ sound in “spatter” and “batted.” Consonance may also refer to the repetition of multiple sounds, as with /p/ and /t/ in “pitter patter” or /b/ and /d/ in “bed” and “bud” or, with sounds reversed, in “bud” and “dab.”Ĭontent: what is being depicted in a work a work’s subject matter (ideas, images, themes, etc.)ĭiction: word choice or vocabulary. Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, as in the line “through this thick air-” in H.D.’s “Garden.”Īpostrophe: an exclamatory figure of speech in which the poetic speaker addresses an object, concept, or person, oftentimes beginning with the word “O,” without the expectation of a response (e.g., the statements “O rose” and “O wind” in H.D.’s “Garden”)Ĭonsonance: repetition of internal or end consonant sounds.