Amygism

//ˈeɪmiˌd͡ʒɪzəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The American school of imagist poetry influenced by Amy Lowell (1874–1925). derogatory, uncountable

    "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."

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.