Pound 's note opened with a definition of an image as " that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time " . Pound goes on to state , " It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works " . His list of " don 'ts " reinforced his three statements in " Imagism " , while warning that they should not be considered as dogma but as the " result of long contemplation " . Taken together , these two texts comprised the Imagist programme for a return to what they saw as the best poetic practice of the past . F.S. Flint commented " we have never claimed to have invented the moon . We do not pretend that our ideas are original . "