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Objectivists (US/UK)

Movement
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

1930s poetic group treating the poem as an object with clear language and form

Detailed Definition
Objectivists were a 1930s U.S./UK poetic movement led by Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, and Charles Reznikoff, emphasizing sincerity, clarity, and the poem as an object; they prioritized precise language, concrete imagery, and ethical attention to the material world over subjective expression or abstraction.
Example
Example in poetry:
Objectivists (US/UK): Louis Zukofsky’s “A” emphasizes sincerity and objectification of thought; George Oppen’s “Of Being Numerous” treats urban life with precise attention; Charles Reznikoff’s “Testimony” uses legal documents as poetic material; Basil Bunting’s “Brigg Flatts” blends personal memory with historical precision; Lorine Niedecker’s condensed lyrics focus on rural Wisconsin with scientific clarity; Objectivists rejected Romantic subjectivity for clear, concrete presentation of the world.
Additional Notes
Objectivists (US/UK) 1930s movement including Oppen, Reznikoff, Zukofsky. Emphasized clarity, sincerity, objectification through precise observation. Influenced by Imagism but more philosophical. Study in context of modernism and visual precision.
Also Known As
Object-focused poets American Objectivist Concrete poetry movement Material verse
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