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 mak
Also, in order to reiterate the point that her blame is directed solely at her lover, in the fifth stanza she once again declares that everything she has lost is lost because of his "arrogance" and "ruthlessness. " Filled with this indictment against Orpheus, Eurydice declares herself as her own person and creates her own identity, completely separate, remote, and safe from any mischance of interference: "At least I have the flowers of myself, / and my thoughts -no god / can take that!" (H. to use in her poetry because up to that point, most women's stories seemed to be told in the voice of the male perspective, following the belief that the male was somehow superior to the female. As he sings, even the ghosts shed tears, and Pluto grants Orpheus' wish; he is allowed to take Eurydice away with him on one condition, that he should not turn around to look at her until they reach the upper air. The maidens become so angered that they scream to the point where they drown out the sound of his music and then proceed to attack him with missiles, tear him from limb to limb, and throw his head and his lyre to into the river. For example, in the myth, the sympathy aroused is for poor Orpheus, who has lost his lover twice. 's poem, Eurydice does not mention the gift of Orpheus' song in the underworld, perhaps to show "the plight of the female speaker at the hands of the egocentric male. Perhaps the names of the flowers she has chosen have to do with the story of Eurydice or with the feelings and thoughts associated with each flower, and perhaps other words, such as light, vein, and reflex, deal with the idea of the life which Eurydice looses, or of the new life which the writer seeks. 's speaker arouses sympathy for Eurydice, who lost life upon the earth twice. She yearns for a return to the flowers and the beauty of what she once knew, and her lover, while leading her to her new life and holding all the beauty she longs for in the palm of his hand, snatches it all away by looking back to make sure she is still there.
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