# Ideogrammic method

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{{Short description|Poetry technique}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2009}}
The '''ideogrammic method''' was a technique expounded by [Ezra Pound](/source/Ezra_Pound) which allowed [poetry](/source/poetry) to deal with [abstract content](/source/abstract_art) through concrete images.  The idea was based on Pound's reading of the work of [Ernest Fenollosa](/source/Ernest_Fenollosa), especially
''The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry'', composed by Fenollosa but edited  by Pound after the author's death, 1908.

Pound gives a brief account of it in his book ''[The ABC of Reading](/source/The_ABC_of_Reading)'' (1934).<ref>{{cite book|last=Pound|first=Ezra|title=ABC of Reading|year=1934|publisher=New Directions Publishing Corporation|isbn=0-8112-0151-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/abcofreading00poun}}</ref>  He explains his understanding of the way [Chinese character](/source/Chinese_character)s were formed, with the example of the character 'East' (東) being essentially a superposition of the characters for 'tree' (木) and 'sun' (日); that is, a picture of the sun tangled in a tree's branches, suggesting a sunrise (which occurs in the East).  He then suggests how, with such a system where concepts are built up from concrete instances, the (abstract) concept of 'red' might be presented by putting together the (concrete) pictures of:

{| border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 style="margin: 1em auto;"
| ROSE
| CHERRY
|-
| IRON RUST
| FLAMINGO
|}

This was a key idea in the development of [Imagism](/source/Imagism).

== References and further reading == 
* {{citation| last= Géfin |first= Laszlo K. |title= Ideogram: History of a Poetic Method |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ivgDAAAQBAJ|publisher= University of Texas Press |year= 1982 |isbn= 9780292740976}}
* {{citation|last=Xu |first=Ping |title= Rose-Cherry-Sunset-Iron Rust-Flamingo' Diagram And The Genesis Of Ezra Pound'S Ideogrammic Method |journal= Paideuma |volume= 27 |number= 2/3 |year= 1998 |pages=53–68 |jstor= 24726187}}
* {{citation| first= Cordell D. K. |last= Yee |title = Discourse on Ideogrammic Method: Epistemology and Pound's Poetics |journal = American Literature |volume= 59 |number= 2 |year= 1987 |pages= 242–56 |doi= 10.2307/2927043|jstor= 2927043 }}

==See also==
* [Ideogram](/source/Ideogram)
* [Imagism](/source/Imagism)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
<br/>
{{Ezra Pound}}

Category:Poetics
Category:Ezra Pound
Category:Imagism

{{Poetry-stub}}

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