Hilda Doolittle

I enjoyed studying Hilda Doolittle after concentrating on male poets over the last several weeks. Doolittle’s poetry is very different from all the other poets we have studied. Most of the poetry we have read has been complex and is left open for various interpretations. Doolittle’s poetry is complex in a different way. For instance, “The Pool” is only four lines, but without knowing the title, we most likely would not understand what she is describing. Her poetry is beautiful and full of imagery. “Sea Rose” is one of her poems that the reader can visualize a rose flying through the wind and landing in the sand. Most of her poetry relates to nature with flowers being a common theme.

“Helen” is another poem that struck my interest because we have discussed other poets that used Helen of Troy in their works. The one line that really caught my interest was “God’s daughter, born of love,” After reading Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan,” I was under the impression that Zeus raped Leda and became pregnant with Helen. Therefore, Helen would not have been born of love. Aside from this, Doolittle describes Helen as a statue. “Still eyes,” “white face,” “white hands,” and “stands” all imply that Greece is staring at a statue of Helen. Greece hates Helen and blames her for starting the Trojan War. Her beauty was destructive and caused many deaths. It almost implies that the only good beauty is the dead beauty.