H. D. ( ) Edited by Nina Lee Braden

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) Born into the Moravian community of artistic, musical mother, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Reared in Upper Darby, a Philadelphia suburb convenient to the University of Pennsylvania Engaged twice to Ezra Pound

Life and Poetry Anguished over the still-birth of a daughter fathered by Aldington in 1915, and the death of her brother Gilbert at the front. Subsequent works intertwined the painful demands of war and love relationships

Poetic Style Developed new lyric, mythic, and mystical forms in poetry and prose Known chiefly for the stark, chiseled images and experimental rhythms of her earliest work, collected as Sea Garden (1916).

An American Imagist Imagism – Subset of Modernism – Precision of imagery – Crisp, sharp language – Preference for Classical (Greek and Roman) values and references – Focus on the “thing”

Changes for Women In 1920, women won the right to vote. Allowed to gain a higher education and entered the world of work. Increased role of women in arts and literature one of the most dramatic 20 th century changes.

New Roles for Women  Women entered the workplace as nurses, teachers, librarians, & secretaries  However, earned less than men; were kept out of many traditional male jobs Early 20 th Century Teachers

The Changing Family  American birthrates declined for several decades before the 1920s  During the 1920s that trend increased as birth control information became widely available  Birth control clinics opened and the American Birth Control League was founded in 1921 Margaret Sanger and other founders of the American Birth Control League

Golden Age of Women Some 20 th century women writers – Edith Wharton – Eudora Welty – Willa Cather – Katherine Anne Porter – Zora Neale Hurston – Flannery O’Connor – Lillian Hellman – Adrienne Rich

The Great Variety of American Modernist Poetry The dadaist and surrealist poems of Gertrude Stein The Imagist poems of Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and Amy Lowell T. S.Eliot’s The Waste Land

“The Flower of the Rod” Resurrection is a sense of direction, resurrection is a bee- line, straight to the horde and plunder, the treasure, the store- room, the honeycomb…. —Hilda Doolittle

Morphological figures Epiphora: Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, sentences, or verses. Whirl your pointed pines Splash your great pines --Hilda Doolittle

Primary Poetry Collections Sea Garden (1916) The Tribute And Circe: Two Poems (1917) Hymen (1921) Heliodora and Other Poems (1924) Red Roses for Bronze (1931) Trilogy – The Walls do not Fall (1944) – Tribute to the Angels (1945) – The Flowering of the Rod (1946) By Avon River (1949) Helen in Egypt (1961)

Primary Novels Palimpsest (1926) Hedylus (1928) HERmione (written 1927, published 1981) Nights (1935) Bid Me to Live (written 1933–1950, published 1960) * H. D. also published a play, memoirs, translations, and a children’s book.