斯托勒是一位被忽略的現代主義詩人,他1908年出版的《幻覺的鏡子》含有英國最早的自由詩理論;他在休姆的"形象俱樂部"活動期間,曾經領導過意象的試驗和討論。在意象主義起源的爭論中,弗林特出于斯托勒在自由詩和意象上的貢獻,將其視為意象主義詩人的先驅。但弗林特的觀點遭到了龐德的強烈反對。龐德依據精確美學以及意象主義的組織標準,認為斯托勒與意象主義沒有關系。龐德對斯托勒的理解是片面的,他未能注意到斯托勒倡導的古典主義詩學的核心正是精確性;而且,這種詩學的立場在于反對浪漫主義的夸張和新奇的風格,尊重傳統而非個性。綜合來看,斯托勒的詩學確實與意象主義美學相近。當代批評家大多接受了弗林特的觀點,將其視作意象主義詩人。但是這些批評家由于固守狹隘的成見,機械地用意象主義的原則來解釋斯托勒,反倒重新模糊了斯托勒的詩學價值。在肯定斯托勒的先驅者地位之后,需要將斯托勒與意象主義再次分割開,以全面理解這位孤獨的現代主義詩人。

Edward Storer was a neglected modernist poet. His Mirrors of Illusion published in 1908 contained the earliest theory of free verse in Britain; he led the experiment and the discussion of imagery in Hulme’s 1909 club. Thus, when the controversy over the origin of Imagism arose, in view of his achievements in free verse and imagery, Storer was credited by F. S. Flint as a forerunner of Imagists. But that title was strongly denied by Ezra Pound, who, according to the precision principle and Imagists’ standard, held that Storer had nothing to do with Imagism. Pound’s opinion was not without partiality, because he failed to see Storer’s later Classicist poetics, the essence of which was exactly preciseness, and whose standpoint was to resist the extravagance and novelty of Romanticism and to respect tradition rather than personality. Generally speaking, Storer’s poetics was in line with the Imagist principles. Most of contemporary critics, following Flint, regard Storer as an Imagist. But due to a narrow preconception, those critics interpreted Storer mechanically with the Imagist principles; as a result, they too underestimated the poetic values of Storer. After having established Storer as a forerunner of Imagism, now we need to separate him from the Imagist group in order to gain a complete understanding of this lonely Modernist poet.