In creating the term, Rothenberg was inspired by the Spanish canto jondo (deep song), especially the work of Federico Garcia Lorca and by the symbolist theory of correspondences.
In general, deep image poems are resonant, stylised and heroic in tone. Longer poems tend to be catalogues of free-standing images.
The deep image group was short-lived, and some of the poets were also associates with performance poetry and the Black Mountain poets.