Poem by H.D. PowerPoint by Grace Drehmer ‘Sheltered garden’ Poem by H.D. PowerPoint by Grace Drehmer

Sheltered Garden 58 lines 11 stanzas I have had enough. O for some sharp swish of a branch- Why not let pears cling I gasp for breath. There is no scent of resin to the empty branch? in this place, all your coaxing will only make no taste of bark, of coarse weeds, a bitter fruit- Every way ends, every road, aromatic, astringent- let them cling, ripen themselves, Every foot-path leads at last only border on border of scented pinks. Test their own worth, To the hill-crest- nipped, shriveled by the frost, Then you retrace your steps, to fall at last but fair Or find the same slope on the other side, Have you seen fruit under cover with a russet coat. Precipitate. That wanted light- pears wadded in cloth, I have had enough- protected from the frost, or the melon- Border-pinks, clove-pinks, wax-lilies, melons, almost ripe, let it bleach yellow Herbs, sweet-cress. Smothered in straw? In the winter light

Sheltered Garden (continued) even tart to the taste- I want wind to break, o to blot out this garden It is better to taste of frost- scatter these pink-stalks to forget, to find a new beauty The exquisite frost- snap off their spiced heads, in some terrible Than of wadding and of dead grass. Fling them about with dead leaves- wind-tortured place. spread the paths with twigs, For this beauty, limbs broken off, Beauty without strength, trail great pine branches, Chokes out life. Hurled from some far wood right across the melon-patch, break pear and quince- leave half-trees, torn, twisted but showing the fight was valiant.

The Life Of Hilda Doolittle Hilda was born on September 10th 1886 in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. Although she is mostly known as a poet, she also wrote novels, memoirs, essays, and did many Greek translations. In 1946 she suffered a severe mental breakdown and had to stay in a clinic for the following spring. H.D. visited the United States in 1960 to collect an American Academy of Arts and Letters medal. H.D. suffered the death of her brother and the breakup of her marriage to the poet, Richard Addington and these events weighed heavily on her later poetry She died on October 28th, 1961 and the rediscovery of Hilda wasn’t until the 1970’s. wordpress.com www.peomhunter.com

The meaning of this poem is… I think the overall meaning is that even though this garden is carefully crafted and beautiful, its too perfect. Hilda feels cornered in this garden, the structure is too put together. Gardens are supposed to feel like art and with life, while this garden is full of pink. I think the them of this poem is lack of freedom, freedom like in the wild, is very important in life. I think the overall purpose of this poem to teach us the importance of freedom. Hilda was bi-sexual and I think she wanted to express to us that we should never cover up who we are and be ourselves. Not what someone else wants us to look like.

Literary and Poetic Elements This poem’s form- this is a free verse poem about nature This poem’s speaker- someone walking through a garden. But we don’t know who. I personally think it is Hilda Doolittle This poem’s imagery-By the time we get to the third stanza, we see some very interesting imagery, such as "border-pinks, clove-pinks, wax-lilies , herbs, sweet-cress," which are all common flowers and plants one would see in a carefully landscaped. There is also imagery when she talks about the pear and melon ripening. The images of the "scent of resin," "the taste of bark," and "coarse weeds" are all the sorts of things found in wild nature And this poem’s terms are- metaphors, imagery, repetition, and alliteration nature.desktop.nexus.com abstract.desktopnexus.com

Poetic terms Metaphor-” I gasp for breath” - feels restricted, needs more space - air is the metaphor for freedom in this case “no taste of bark, of coarse weed” - metaphor for challenges Imagery- basically this whole poem is full of imagery, from the pink flowers, to the frost, to the pears and melons, and the garden being destroyed in the end. Repetition-” I have had enough-” - repetition for emphasis Alliteration- she likes using the same sound or letter a lot like ‘smothered in straw’, ‘or snap off their spiced heads’.

Imagery Walleidehd.com Blogs.nybg.org I choose these two pictures to represent my poem because the first picture is how I imaged the poem in her eyes, pink flowers everywhere, too perfect. No room to breathe. Then, the second picture to me is how she wishes the garden would look. Destroyed, and free again. She says she wants to forget, to blot the garden out, for it to be destroyed, and overall killed. She wants the garden to be free of the perfection, and look like nature again.

Documentation http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/poetry-analysis-following-poems-sheltered- garden-470974 http://201litjournal.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/sheltered-garden-annotation/ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/h-d#poet