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Direct presentation

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A style that shows rather than tells, avoiding abstraction or commentary

Detailed Definition
Direct presentation is a poetic principle—central to Imagism—that insists on showing rather than telling, using precise images and concrete details to convey experience without interpretive commentary, moralizing, or abstraction; the poet presents the scene or object “as is,” trusting the reader to derive meaning from the juxtaposition of sensory data, as in Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.”
Example
Example in poetry:
Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” presents “Petals on a wet, black bough” without commentary; Williams’ “This Is Just To Say” states facts plainly: “I have eaten / the plums”; H.D.’s “Sea Rose” offers “harsh rose” without metaphorical explanation; Bashō’s “A crow / on a bare branch— / autumn evening” shows, never tells.
Additional Notes
Direct presentation is an Imagist principle advocating showing rather than telling—using precise images without explanatory commentary or abstraction to convey meaning immediately.
Also Known As
Show-don’t-tell technique unmediated depiction immediate presentation objective correlative (in some contexts) Imagism Visual immediacy
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