H.D.'s Modernist Eurydice

             Hilda Doolittle, more commonly known as H.D., like other modern poets of her time, sought out on the pursuit of unity and deep Truth in her poetry. She was a major skeptic, doubting the world as she knew it and questioning the inherited concepts that she and most others had been taught. Wondering why things had to be done a certain way just because they had always been done so, she took it upon herself as a modern poet to do things in a whole new way – her way. Perhaps this is why she took such a new approach in her poem, "Eurydice," in which she embeds herself in the mysterious and often unknown world of mythology. This new subject, a prime example of Ezra Pound's defining statement, "Make it new," as well as her voice, her form, her style, and her language, make the poem Modern in every way. However, in order to understand how she brings each of these components together to make such a poem, it is almost necessary to have background knowledge of how she "makes it new," that is, of the mythology behind the poem.
             The story behind the poem is that of Orpheus and Eurydice. Shortly after the two are married, Eurydice, while walking with the nymphs, is spotted by the shepherd Aristæus, who falls in love with her beauty and makes advances to her. In her attempt to flee, she steps on a snake, is bitten in the foot, and dies. Orpheus is so sad that he resolves to find Eurydice in the land of the dead. Using the lyre his father Apollo had taught him to play, and which he had perfected to the point where nothing could escape the charm of his music, he sings these words to Pluto and Proserpine:
             ...Love has led me here...I implore you...unite the thread of Eurydice's life. We are all destined to you, and sooner or later must pass to your domain. She too, when she shall have filled her term of life, will rightly be yours. But till then grant her to me, I beseech you. If yo...

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H.D.'s Modernist Eurydice. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 13:45, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/26563.html