Word of the ?Week: Imagist

At work, I have been unsuccessfully attempting to read The Poetical Works of Longfellow during my lunches. I haven't gotten very far - but I have been avidly enjoying it.

In the introduction, I came across the word Imagists, and although it has been months since I've done a Word of the Week, I've decided to look up Imagism, as it is something I had never heard of.

First, a bit of background:

As you know, I love to read. I loved English in high school. I had a succession of English teachers, some brilliant (Mr. Jones), some less so (Mrs. Wichellow comes to mind) in terms of inspiring a love of my native tongue and its many interpretations on paper. What I discovered part-way through high school, though, was that I did not particularly enjoy, nor did I have a particular talent for, dissecting and analyzing literature. The purpose of this blog is reflection, and an enjoyment of the memories and thoughts that the books I read bring up in me. However, if I had to continue to write "what theme did you follow throughout the book and what did it all MEAN?" papers about the books I read, I would likely cease reading.

For this reason, I actively chose not to take English courses in university - I thought they would focus too much on the analysis, and not enough on the enjoyment I found in casual reading.

I think, in choosing not to take English, even as an elective, that I may have missed out on some of the periods of literary history and understanding how writing and poetry evolved through the decades of the last few hundreds of years.

Now, on to Imagism, something I might have heard of if I had chosen to take poetry in university:

Imagism is, according to Wikipedia, was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry notable for its precise imagery and sharp, clear language. Notable examples of Imagist poets are Ezra Pound and D.H. Lawrence.

I was surprised to see D.H. Lawrence ranked as a key Imagist poet, as I did not know that he wrote poetry. Of course I am familiar with his prose, though I have not read any. I think everyone has heard of Sons and Lovers, or of Lady Chatterley's Lover. And although Pound's name is familiar to me, I'm not sure why - I certainly haven't read any of his work.

And so - with this word of the week, I've decided to create a Parking Lot. It's a term I picked up at work: A Parking Lot is where you put ideas that are good ones, but take you off your current focus, and so you 'park' them until the time is right. I already have so many books to read that I already own, that I need a place to put things that I'd like to read sometime - sometime down the line once I'm caught up on my own books! So Pound and Lawrence's poetry will be the first additions to my Parking Lot. I fear there will be a monster list there by the time I get there! But - as I reasoned in a post awhile back, this is a pasttime that will never end, as I will never run out of interesting things to read. Best to keep a list of the things that interest me, even if I don't get to them until well down the road!