Co-founded by the Epoch Poetry Trio poets Chang Mo (張默), Luo Fu (洛夫), and Ya Hsien (瘂弦) in 1954 in Taiwan,[1] the poetry society was initiated in the military, and its early members and organization had a distinct military style.
In the first stage, the content of the publication prioritizes imagery and conception, emphasizing Chinese and Oriental style.
In the second stage, they turned to modernism and began to advocate "surrealism",[3] initiating discussions on the form and content of poetry through the analysis and explanation of translations of foreign poems.
[1] In the third stage, which coincided with Taiwan's withdrawal from the United Nations and the Defend the Tiaoyutai Islands movement, the Taiwanese literary community criticized the over-westernization of modern poetry writing at that time, sparking discussions on the style of modern poetry writing.
The poetry society responded that they opposed realism and reiterated their perspective on modernist aesthetics.