Amygism

English

Etymology

Blend of Amy +‎ imagism, coined by the poet Ezra Pound.

Noun

Amygism (uncountable)

1. (derogatory) The American school of imagist poetry influenced by Amy Lowell (1874–1925).
   • 1998, H. T. Kirby-Smith, The Origins of Free Verse, page xii:

     Many examples of what Pound called "Amygism" have permeated reference sources; besides the Britannica, they may be found in entries on "cadence" and "free verse" in the Merriam-Webster and Random House dictionaries, and under "Free Verse" in the venerable Thrall and Hibbard Handbook to Literature. These definitions continue to give the impression that free verse had a metric of its own, quite independent of accentual-syllabic prosody.

Related terms

• Amygist