I BETWEEN POSITIVISM AND Several critics have been intrigued by the gap between late AND MAGISM Victorian poetry and the more »modern« poetry of the 1920s. This book attempts to get to grips with the watershed by BETWEEN analysing one school of poetry and criticism written in the first decade of the 20th century until the end of the First World War. T To many readers and critics, T.E. Hulme and the Imagists . E POSITIVISM represent little more than a footnote. But they are more HULME . than mere stepping-stones in the transition. Besides being experimenting poets, most of them are acute critics of art and literature, and they made the poetic picture the focus of their attention. They are opposed not only to the monopoly FLEMMING OLSEN T AND T.S. ELIOT: of science, which claimed to be able to decide what truth and . S reality »really« are, but also to the predictability and insipidity of . E much of the poetry of the late Tennyson and his successors. LIOT: Behind the discussions and experiments lay the great question IMAGISM AND What Is Reality? What are its characteristics? How can we describe it? Can we ever get to an understanding of it? Hulme and the Imagists deserve to be taken seriously because T.E. HULME of their untiring efforts, and because they contributed to bringing about the reorientation that took place within the poetical and critical traditions. FLEMMING OLSEN UNIVERSITY PRESS OF ISBN 978-87-7674-283-6 SOUTHERN DENMARK Between Positivism and T.S. Eliot: Imagism and T.E. Hulme Flemming Olsen BETWEEN POSITIVISM AND T.S. ELIOT: IMAGISM AND T.E. HULME UNIVERSITY PRESS OF SO U THERN DENMARK 2008 University of Southern Denmark Studies in Literature vol. 52 © Flemming Olsen and University Press of Southern Denmark Set and printed by Grafisk Data Center A/S, Odense Cover design by Anne Charlotte Mouret, Side-1 ISBN 978-87-7674-283-6 Printed with support from Landsdommer V. Gieses Legat University Press of Southern Denmark Campusvej 55 DK-5230 Odense M Phone: +45 6615 7999 Fax: +45 6615 8126 [email protected] www.universitypress.dk Distribution in the United States and Canada: International Specialized Book Services 5804 NE Hassalo Street Portland, OR 97213-3644 USA www.isbs.com Distribution in the United Kingdom: Gazelle White Cross Mills Hightown Lancaster LA1 4 XS U.K. www.gazellebooks.co.uk Syddansk Universitetsforlag Campusvej 55 5230 Odense M Tlf. 66 15 79 99 Fax 66 15 81 26 www.universitypress.dk TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE...................................................... 9 CHAPTER ONE: IMAGISM Name. Origin. Members . 11 A New Note .................................................. 13 The World and the Poet ......................................... 14 Language . 15 Form . 16 Content . 17 The Imagist Principles . 17 Imagist Criticism of Imagism ..................................... 19 Vorticism . 21 CHAPTER TWO: THE LATE 19TH CENTURY SCIENTIFIC MODEL Introduction .................................................. 23 Lord Kelvin . 23 Reality . 25 CHAPTER THREE: THE PERVASIVENESS OF THE MODEL Ernst Mach . 27 Herbert Spencer ............................................... 28 August Comte . 30 Hippolyte Taine ............................................... 33 CHAPTER FOUR: POSITIVISM AND ITS LIMITATIONS Positivism .................................................... 37 Limitations ................................................... 39 The Scientists ................................................. 41 The Philosophers . 42 CHAPTER FIVE: COUNTERCURRENTS L’art pour l’art . 50 Theodor Lipps . 51 John Ruskin .................................................. 52 French Influence . 53 Mimesis . 53 Creation. Ribot . 54 Gourmont . 55 Laforgue ..................................................... 57 5 CHAPTER SIX: BREAKTHROUGH OF THE ANTI-POSITIVISTS Planck . 61 Einstein . 62 The Humanities ............................................... 62 Symbolism ................................................... 64 CHAPTER SEVEN: INDEBTEDNESS Introduction .................................................. 67 Wittgenstein .................................................. 67 Dynamism and Categorization .................................... 68 Bergson . 69 Bergson and Hulme ............................................ 71 Form . 72 Worringer .................................................... 72 Vers libre ..................................................... 74 Dance ....................................................... 78 CHAPTER EIGHT: HULME’S PHILOSOPHY Introduction .................................................. 81 Argumentation ................................................ 82 Absolutes . 83 Hulme and Science . 84 Bergson . 85 Dichotomies .................................................. 85 Intuition versus Intellect ......................................... 85 Manifolds .................................................... 86 Humanism and Religion . 87 Values ....................................................... 88 Conclusion ................................................... 89 CHAPTER NINE: HULME’S AESTHETICS Introduction .................................................. 91 The Purpose of Art ............................................. 92 Dichotomies .................................................. 93 Form . 93 Geometric versus Vital Art ....................................... 93 Classical versus Romantic ........................................ 95 Beauty . 96 Creation ..................................................... 97 Hulme and Politics ............................................. 98 CHAPTER TEN: HULME’S LITERARY THEORIES Introduction .................................................. 99 Science and Poetry ............................................. 100 The Poet ..................................................... 101 6 Literature and its Raw Materials ................................... 102 The Creative Process ............................................ 103 Fancy and Imagination .......................................... 106 The Subject . 106 Mimesis . 107 Form . 108 Language . 111 Cinders and Counters . 113 The Function of the Image ....................................... 117 The Reader ................................................... 117 The Objective Correlative . 118 CHAPTER ELEVEN: HULME’S POEMS Introduction . 123 Themes ..................................................... 124 Composition ................................................. 127 Form ....................................................... 128 Vocabulary . 129 Characters ................................................... 131 Images ...................................................... 132 CHAPTER TWELVE: HULME CRITICISM.......................... 137 CONCLUSION Positivism . 143 Imagism . 144 Hulme ...................................................... 145 The Legacy . 145 Eliot . 146 Later Developments ............................................ 147 Final Remarks . 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 149 ALPHABETICAL INDEX . 163 NOTES ....................................................... 173 7 PREFA C E Several critics have been intrigued by the gap between late Victorian poetry and the more “modern” poetry of the 1920s. It is my contention that a close analy- sis of the poetry and criticism written in the first decade of the 20th century and until the end of the First World War – excluding war poetry – will be rewarding if we want to acquire a greater understanding of the transition. The book is not meant as a total overview of the intellectual climate in Eng- land from Tennyson to Eliot. Rather, it describes the development that took place within art and literature – especially poetry – as a reaction against the positivist attitude. Early in the 19th century, science came to be taken as the opposite of poetry because the Romanticists conceived of the lyrical poem as the outlet of the poet’s feelings. That attitude was dominant during the rest of the 19th century. To many readers and critics, T.E.Hulme represents little more thasn a foot- note. He is vaguely known as one of the precursors of the far more interesting T.S.Eliot, for which reason some lip-service may be paid to him, but his own achievement is hardly ever referred to. Hulme and the Imagists represent an intermediary stage between Tennyson and Eliot, but they are more than mere stepping-stones. Besides being experi- menting poets, most of them are acute critics of art and literature, prescrip- tively as well as descriptively. Hulme’s theories are sketchy, his presentation not infrequently confusing, and his poetry mostly fragments. The following pages attempt to analyse his oeuvre, a material hardly anybody has taken the trouble to consider in its entirety, He understood that some form of theory is a useful accompaniment of poetic practice, and, like his Imagist friends, he made the poetic image the focus of his attention. The Imagists were opposed not only to the monopoly of science, scientia scientium, which claimed to be able to decide what truth and reality “really” were, but also to the “Tennysonianisms”, which, they felt, had made poetry predictable and insipid. 9 This book attempts to get to grips with the watershed. I owe Professor Lars Ole Sauerberg my heartfelt gratitude for his advice, encouragement and patience during the process of writing this book. March 2008 Flemming Olsen CHA P TER ONE IMAGISM NAME . ORIGIN . MEMBERS Writers and critics of the first and second decades of the 20th century give dif- ferent versions of the origin of the Imagist movement,