In the following essay, Cederstrom identifies Whitman as "a powerful and pervasive force " on Imagist theory and practice.

SOURCE: "Walt Whitman and the Imagists," in Walt Whitman of Mickle Street: A Centennial Collection, edited by Geoffrey M. Sill, The University of Tennessee Press/Knoxville, 1994, pp. 205-23.

The influence of Walt Whitman upon the Imagist poets is a complex issue. Although several recent studies have clarified Whitman's relationship to certain Imagists like Ezra Pound, Whitman's influence upon the poetic theory of Imagism has been less clearly defined.¹ A major difficulty in addressing this question is that many of the Imagists considered their poetic practice to be directly opposed to Whitman's. This essay will demonstrate that, notwithstanding the pleas of Imagists to the contrary, Walt Whitman's poetry was a powerful and pervasive force on their practice and technique.

The most vociferous denial of Whitman's influence came from the Imagists' self-styled...