Ezra Pound’s Philosophical Views Behind His "Three Principles" Of Imagism

Ezra Pound(1885-1972)was a prominent figure of Anglo-American poetry in the twentieth century,and played a significant role in Anglo-American literature.He was the initiator of the Imagist Movement,which injected new vitality into modern poetry,and marked the onset of modernist poetry.As a pioneer of the Imagist Movement,Pound,gave the definition of image,the combination of an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.Meanwhile,he drew a clear boundary for the Imagist poetry in terms of both content and form by coming up with the "three principles of Imagism":direct treatment of the thing,whether subjective or objective;to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase,not in the sequence of a metronome.The three principles provided the basic rules for Imagist writers,and also served as important basis for research on Imagist poetry.However,among the current research achievements of American Imagist poetry at home and abroad,there are very few results of special research on American Imagist poetry and the poetic thoughts it reflected.Most of them focus on the investigation of the background of Imagist poetry’s creation,researches on the imagist poetic thought itself are even less.Literature is closely related with philosophy,and therefore,the poet’s philosophical views of the world are often hidden behind his poetics.As a prominent feature of the development of philosophy in the 20th century,the trend of irrationalism inevitably exerted great influence on the literary theories at that time.A rule that the present author finds applicable to Pound and his principles of Imagism.Therefore,this thesis is to reveal Pound’s philosophical views behind his three principles of Imagism.The thesis also points out,through discussion,that his philosophical views are not a passive reenactment of irrationalism at that time,but,to a certain extent,they foresee the development direction of it.The thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter One briefly introduces Pound’s life and the Imagist Movement,reviews the research of the Imagist Movement at home and abroad,and explains the focus and structure of this thesis.Chapter Two lays out the three principles of Imagism,and further elucidates them with imagist poems.Chapters Three to Five explore Pound’s philosophical views behind the three principles.Chapter Three reveals Pound’s conception of the "thing",that is,the object of his poetry.From his perspective,the thing must be conceivable,so its existence requires the presence of both the object and the subject.He negates the absolute objectivity of the thing.Chapter Four analyzes Pound’s view on the act of conceiving.He believes that human reason is weak,and therefore intuition is indispensable to human conception.Chapter Five investigates Pound’s thoughts about the presentation of the thing.He thinks that the object exists before man tells about it,so in poetic creation the poet must allow it to manifest autonomously.Chapter Six summarizes the previous discussions,and points out that Pound’s three principles were not random thoughts,but were established upon his philosophical views on the object,the relationship between the object and the subject,and how to present the object.