William Carlos Williams and Imagism

I’m enjoying the poetry of [William Carlos Williams](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-carlos-williams), credited as one of the leaders of the [Imagist](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-imagism) movement, which sought to rescue poetry from the vague and flowery language of Georgian Romanticism.

My favorite is the funny and surprising “[This Is Just To Say](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say)”, which is also [great for parodies](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/poem-becomes-meme-forgive-me.html).

> (This is just to say)

> I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

> and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

> Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Ezra Pound described the core tenets of Imagism as:

* Direct treatment of the “thing,” whether subjective or objective.
* To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation
* As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.

To the extent product design can reflect poetry, those would be pretty good design principles too.