Their names have largely been forgotten over time — TE Hulme, FS
Flint, Edward Storer — but 100 years ago today, a young and edgy group
of bohemians met together for the first time and changed the face of poetry for good.
Enthusiasts
are celebrating 25 March as one of our most significant literary
anniversaries, though one that most people know nothing about. It
marked, they claim, the birth of modern poetry. And it all happened in
a central London cafe, just off Tottenham Court Road.
"What
went on in there changed the course of poetry in the 20th century,"
said lecturer Robert Richardson, pointing to a French-Vietnamese
restaurant called Bam-Bou, now owned by the group behind The Ivy. On 25
March 1909 it was called Cafe Tour d'Eiffel, and it was here that the
group of poets who would later become known as the "School of Images"
gathered.
Happy Imagist Day
Today we celebrate the birth of Modernism.