The movement from Imagism to Objectivism to Projectivism—summarized by Olson in the term Objectism—has been characterized by an increasing awareness of the implications of poetic techniques. Pound often says he is doing one thing and does another; Williams pinpoints the movement's basis, a new relationship between the self and the world; Olson explicitly asserts a new version of the self, one that plays down the traditional role of consciousness. But our survey is not complete without adding a footnote provided by Robert Duncan.

In his essay "Notes on Poetics Regarding Olson's Maximus," Duncan reinterprets Pound's "logopoeia" as "not only a verbal manifestation, but a physiological manifestation." Taking this into account, he formulates his account of the genesis of the poem as follows:

The coming into life of the child: first, that the breath-blood circulation be gaind, an interjection! the levels of the passions and inspiration in...