In the following essay, Jackson focuses on "Hermes of the Ways" in an examination of the extent to which H.D.'s poetry adheres to the principles of Imagism.

SOURCE: "The Fulsomeness of Her Prolixity": Reflections on "H.D., 'Imagiste'," in The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 83, No. 1, Winter, 1984, pp. 91-102.

From its inception the Imagist movement was associated with the ideal of concision. The second of the three precepts announced in F. S. Flint's note "Imagisme" was "To use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the presentation." Pound's "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste" repeatedly returns to this principle: "Use no superfluous word," "Use either no ornament or good ornament," "the natural object is always the adequate symbol." Even later, when Imagism had been appropriated by Amy Lowell, we find the same emphasis, in theory if not always in practice: "most of us believe that concentration...