Imagism has been described as the most influential movement in English poetry since the activity of the Pre @-@ Raphaelites . As a poetic style it gave Modernism its start in the early 20th century , and is considered to be the first organized Modernist literary movement in the English language . Imagism is sometimes viewed as ' a succession of creative moments ' rather than any continuous or sustained period of development . René Taupin remarked that ' It is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine , nor even as a poetic school , but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles ' .