Imagiste

Available for over a year

Jean Sprackland explores the subversive beauty of the female Imagist poets, such as H.D. and Amy Lowell, whose work changed the direction of poetry in the years just before the First World War. They sought crystalline precision - a pared down presentation of the thing itself and a desire to use the poem not to record a moment, but to be that moment. Jean talks to fellow poets Fiona Benson, Nisha Ramayya and Mona Arshi, who've all been inspired by the original Imagistes, and to researchers Richard Vytniorgu, Exeter University and Melissa Bradshaw, Loyola University in Chicago, and discovers an enduring and rich legacy. Readings by Fenella Woolgar Produced by Emma Harding