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How did New Criticism develop from the writings of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and T.E. Hulme?

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Antique book open to the frontispiece of The Iliad of Homer, showing the title and an engraved portrait of a bearded man, with old books in the background. — literature *The Iliad*, an epic of the Trojan War attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, is considered a foundational work of Western literature.

New Criticism did not develop directly from the writings of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and T.E. Hulme in a linear fashion; rather, these figures provided the aesthetic and intellectual climate that influenced the movement's focus on the intrinsic qualities of a text.

While New Criticism emerged as a formal school of literary critical theory after World War I, its emphasis on the "intrinsic value" of a work and the rejection of biographical or historical data were foreshadowed by the earlier Modernist movements.1

T.E. Hulme: His critical views, which revolted against "Romantic optimism" and advocated for a "hard, dry" style of poetry, influenced the Imagist movement. His belief in the limitations of man and his call for disciplined, objective art helped set the stage for the disillusionment and formal rigor later adopted by New Critics.234
Ezra Pound: As a central figure in Imagism, Pound championed direct, sparse language and the presentation of the "Image" as a total poetic statement. These principles of precision and the rejection of sentimentality aligned with the New Critical focus on the text as an independent unit of meaning.231
T.S. Eliot: Eliot contributed directly to the tradition through essays like "Tradition and the Individual Talent," which helped establish the critical framework for analyzing poetry as a unique form of discourse distinct from science or philosophy.1