H.D. and Auden

Two posts in one here.

On H.D. :

I'm somewhat torn on how I feel about H.D.'s shorter length style of poetry. While I have no doubt that most of these poems hold a significant amount of meaning to H.D., I just can't seem to find it. I feel as if I'm being "jipped" out of something and there should be more to it, more to the story. It made it a little difficult to understand what she wanted to convey. On the other hand, this is what makes he poems intriguing. I enjoyed Oread and after our discussion I liked it more. Though very short in length, the poem consisted of vivid imagery and movement, almost like a painting. H.D., after all, is an imagist poets. But what I enjoyed most by H.D. was From Tribute to the Angels. Though not very religious myself, I loved the religious symbolism in this poem. As we discussed in class, she used the number 7 often. In Christianity, the number 7 has both positive and negative qualities: 7 days of Creation, 7 days of suffering to whomever kills Cain, and much more. She also mentions the 12 angels in it too. I think this makes H.D's poem interesting because it takes what is known into account and relates to the readers.The Book of Revelations is quite interesting itself, which makes for her poem to just as interesting.


On Auden:

In this post I wanted to discuss "September 1, 1939." When I first read it, I definitely felt the connect, as most did, to the September 11 attacks. The poem gives an eerily similar description of that day. And the fact that Auden wrote this in New York City makes it all too familiar. Obviously this isn't a poem about September 11 but I can see why people would take this and relate it to that day.

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-Second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
and darkened lands of the earth
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

This first stanza is full of feelings and emotions that most of us were expressing on 9/11. The "waves of anger and fear" and the "unmentionable odour of death" are two lines that immediately jump out at me and remind of how I felt on that day. I think it's amazing how a poem like this written in 1940 could have such a personal connection with people of today.