 The origins of Imagism are to be found in two poems , Autumn and A City Sunset by T. E. Hulme . These were published in January 1909 by the Poets ' Club in London in a booklet called For Christmas <unk> . Hulme was a student of mathematics and philosophy ; he had been involved in the setting up of the club in 1908 and was its first secretary . Around the end of 1908 , he presented his paper A Lecture on Modern Poetry at one of the club 's meetings . Writing in A. R. Orage 's magazine The New Age , the poet and critic F. S. Flint ( a champion of free verse and modern French poetry ) was highly critical of the club and its publications . From the ensuing debate , Hulme and Flint became close friends . In 1909 , Hulme left the Poets ' Club and started meeting with Flint and other poets in a new group which Hulme referred to as the " Secession Club " ; they met at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in London 's Soho to discuss plans to reform contemporary poetry through free verse and the tanka and haiku and the removal of all unnecessary verbiage from poems . The interest in Japanese verse forms can be placed in a context of the late Victorian and Edwardian revival of interest in <unk> and Japonism as witnessed in the 1890s vogue for William Anderson 's Japanese prints donated to the British Museum , performances of Noh plays in London , and the success of Gilbert and Sullivan 's operetta The Mikado ( 1885 ) . Direct literary models were available from a number of sources , including F. V. Dickins 's 1866 Hyak nin is <unk> , or , Stanzas by a Century of Poets , Being Japanese Lyrical Odes , the first English @-@ language version of the Hyakunin isshu , a 13th @-@ century anthology of 100 waka , the early 20th @-@ century critical writings and poems of Sadakichi Hartmann , and contemporary French @-@ language translations . 
