H.D. (1886 - 1961).
W o r k
- pioneered the modernist poetry: contributed to Imagism, Vorticism, & other such movements
- concerned with the experience of a woman and the psyche adrift in a violent and insecure reality
- felt the tension btw the private x public sphere, submission x resistance, compliance x rebellion
- followed E. Pound to England with a lady who was in love with Pound and whom she was in love with > created a pattern of emotionally charged and somewhat restrained bisexuality working for her
- used images from nature: the austere landscapes of sea, sand, and wind x the exotic flowers, shells, and jewellery
- contrasted sterility x fruitfulness, intellect x passion, control x abandon, grief x joy
- an imagist:
(a) vivid phrasing, compelling imagery, no abstraction, and no generalisation
(b) free verse and a short poetic line
Sea Garden (1916):
= a collection of her poems published originally in little magazines and anthologies
Hymen (1921):
= a collection of her poems in a new boldly meditative style
Helen in Egypt (1961):
= an epic poem inspired by Greek poetry and Homer’s Helen of his Iliad
- a feminist deconstruction of male-centered epic poetry
- a female response to E. Pound's Cantos
Quote
"No one knows the colour of a flower / till it is broken".
From "Electra-Orestes".
Basics
(Photo: Wikipedia).
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Author
H(ilda) D(oolittle). (1886 - 1961). American. -
Work
Poet. One of the expatriates. -
Genres
Modernism. Imagism. Vorticism.
Literature
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. London: Penguin, 1991.
Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1994.
McQuade, Donald, gen.ed. The Harper American Literature. New York: Harper & Collins, 1996.
Ruland, Richard, Malcolm Bradbury. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997.
Vančura, Zdeněk, ed. Slovník spisovatelů: Spojené státy americké. Praha: Odeon, 1979.