Oread by Hilda Doolittle H.D. | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Hilda Doolittle was an American modernist poet who began as a part of the influential imagist modernist poets group initiated by Ezra Pound but later on, turned towards a wider variety of forms, including fiction, memoir, and verse drama.

She was born on 10^th September 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and died on September 27, 1961. As a poet, she chose to write under the name H.D. and became famous by that acronym. Hilda was a student of Greek mythology and literature at Bryan Mawr College, Pennsylvania and she continued to use elements of Greek mythology in her poems and other literary works throughout her life. In 1901, she came in contact with Ezra Pound and she was hugely impressed by him. They developed an on-and-off romantic relationship and remained close friends throughout their life. However, Hilda’s family wasn’t in favor of their marriage and hence, she married Richard Aldington in 1913.

Ezra Pound suggested the pseudonym H.D. to Hilda as she felt that "Hilda Doolittle" is an old-fashioned and "quaint" name.

H.D. joined Ezra Pound to work for the poetry magazine Blast and The Egoist in 1911 in London and like Ezra Pound, she too disliked the Victorian descriptive style of poetry. Thus, they began their modernist imagist group. Initially, Hilda and Pound agreed to follow certain principles in their poetic works which included direct treatment of the 'thing' whether subjective or objective, using absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation, and composing poetry in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.

Despite her agreement with using minimal words and more imagery in her poetic works, Hilda continued to use elements of Greek mythology in her works. One such imagist poem written by Hilda Doolittle or H.D. is titled Oread which was first published in the first issue of Blast in 1914.

The title Oread itself is an element of Grek mythology which means a mountain wood nymph.

Structure of Oread:

Oread is a first-person poem and Oread is the speaker addressing the sea. The poem is highly concise consisting of only 26 words composed in six lines written in free verse without using any superfluous word, any adjective, which does not reveal something. H.D. profoundly used imagery in this compact poem, so much so that two contrasting images have been superimposed on each other, depriving the reader of the possibility to determine, which is the "primary" one. There is no systematic rhyming pattern but H.D. used anaphora in the first two lines and apostrophes in the second and third lines which offer a deep connection. The poem is a fine example of imagist verse that uses imagism to the fullest. In addition, Hilda used alliteration and metaphor in Oread and compares wood to the sea, and refers to the waves as “pointed pines” and “great pines”.

To a mountain nymph, the sea is completely alien but in this poem, the nymph is addressing the sea and thus, she imagines the sea but as her, all experiences are confounded to the hill, woods, and trees, she expresses the sea in her own terms.

Summary of Oread:

“Whirl up, sea—

whirl your pointed pines,

splash your great pines

on our rocks,

hurl your green over us,

cover us with your pools of fir.”

Lines 1-3

Oread begins the poem with epistrophe and directs the sea to ‘Whirl up,’ that is, the mountain nymph beseeches the sea to move with all its might as in a large and powerful storm. In the second and third lines, Hilda used Juxtaposition as Oread further directs the sea on how to move. Being a mountain nymph, she has no idea of how the sea is, and thus Oread uses the imagery of the world she is familiar with to describe the waves as ‘pointed pines’ and ‘great pines.’ Oread imagines the sea waves as its pines (thin sharp leaves) and urges the sea to release its energy and consume everything around it and reach the mountains to splash and drown everything with sea waves that are pines.

 Lines 4-6

H.D. employed enjambment in between the third and fourth lines while mentioning what to splash. Oread uses ‘our’ to mention the ‘rocks' that she wishes to be splashed by the sea waves. This suggests that either there are other persons along with Oread who owns the rocks (maybe some other wood nymph). Or, it may suggest that Oread agrees that the rocks belong to both of them, the mountain and the sea. However, t becomes clear in the last line where Oread uses ‘us’ that she meant to include all living and non-living things of the mountain, including her.

 Oread wishes the sea to use its might to melt the rocks with its pines (sea waves) and cover everything (us) with green water as if caressingly covering the nymph with “pools of fir.”

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!