Modernist poetry is a mode of writing that is characterized by two main features. The first is technical innovation in the writing through the extensive use of free verse. The second is a move away from the Romantic idea of an unproblematic poetic 'self' directly addressing an equally unproblematic ideal reader or audience.

The origins of Imagism and cubism are to be found in two poems by T. E. Hulme that were published in 1909 by the Poets' Club in London. Hulme was a student of mathematics and philosophy who had established the Poets' Club to discuss his theories of poetry. He started meeting with other poets at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Soho to discuss reform of contemporary poetry through free verse and the tanka and haiku and the removal of all unnecessary verbiage from poems.

The American poet Ezra Pound was introduced to this group and they found that their ideas resembled his. In 1911, Pound introduced two other poets, H.D. and Richard Aldington, to the Eiffel Tower group. In October 1912, Pound submitted three poems each by H.D. and Aldington under the rubric Imagiste to Poetry magazine. That month Pound's book Ripostes was published with an appendix called The Complete Poetical Works of T. E. Hulme, which carried a note that saw the first appearance of the word Imagiste in print. Aldington's poems were in the November issue of Poetry and H.D.'s in January 1913 and Imagism as a movement was launched. The March issue contained Pound's A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste and Flint's Imagisme. The latter contained this succinct statement of the group's position:

1. Direct treatment of the "thing", whether subjective or objective. 
2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 
3. Complete freedom of subject matter. 
4. Free verse was encouraged along with other new rhythms. 
5. Common speech language was used, and the exact word was always to be used, as opposed to the almost exact word.

Between 1914 and 1917, four anthologies of Imagist poetry were published. In addition to Pound, Flint, H.D. and Aldington, these included work by Skipwith Cannell, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Allen Upward, John Cournos, D. H. Lawrence and Marianne Moore.

Father of Modern Poetry
Thomas Ernest Hulme (1883-1917), the soldier-poet, was born in Staffordshire.

Hulme's characteristic conduct and outlook upon life has been variously described as 'robust' and 'argumentative'.  It certainly brought its fair share of complications.  Hulme's studies at Cambridge University were interrupted in 1904 (twice in total) by his being sent down for rowdy behaviour.

In 1906-07 he resolved to work his passage to Canada where he was to busy himself in manual labour on farms and lumber-camps.  Upon his return to Britain, Hulme established a reputation as an authority on Henri Bergson, translating the latter's works.

At the heart of the avant-garde English set of the early years of the century, Hulme's reputation today largely rests upon his strong influence upon such eminent writers as Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot.  Hulme, along with Pound, founded Imagist poetry with its steadfast contempt for romanticism and preference for clear visual images.

Hulme's own poetical output was modest.  In 1912 he somewhat wryly published The Complete Poetical Works of T.E. Hulme - comprising all five poems (increased to a total of six by the time of his death).

The outbreak of war in 1914 saw Hulme volunteer for service with the infantry on the Western Front.  Wounded in 1916 he was killed by a shell-burst in Nieuport, Belgium, following his return to the Front with the Royal Marines Artillery on 28 September 1917.


Above the Dock
Above the quiet dock in midnight,
Tangled in the tall mast's corded height,
Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away
Is but a child's balloon, forgotten after play.

Autumn
A touch of cold in the Autumn night --
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded, 
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.

The Embankment
The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.)
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy, 
In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth's the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small 
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.