In the following essay, Lowell identifies Imagism as a descendant of French Symbolism and clarifies the aims of Imagist poetry.

SOURCE: Preface to Some Imagist Poets, 1916: An Annual Anthology, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916, pp. v-xii.

In bringing the second volume of Some Imagist Poets before the public, the authors wish to express their gratitude for the interest which the 1915 volume aroused. The discussion of it was widespread, and even those critics out of sympathy with Imagist tenets accorded it much space. In the Preface to that book, we endeavoured to present those tenets in a succinct form. But the very brevity we employed has lead to a great deal of misunderstanding. We have decided, therefore, to explain the laws which govern us a little more fully. A few people may understand, and the rest can merely misunderstand again, a result to which we are quite accustomed.

In the first...