H. D.: An Appreciation Author(s): Denise Levertov Source: Poetry, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Jun., 1962), pp.

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POETRY

COMMENT

H. D.: AN APPRECIATION Like somany others, I was foryears familiaronlywith a handful of

H. D.'s early poems. Peartree, Orchard, Heat, Oread. Beautiful though they
were, theydid not leadme to look further, at the time.Perhaps itwas kind theyseemed final,theend of some thatbeing such absolutesof their road notmine; and Iwas looking fordoors,ways in, tunnelsthrough. When I came, late, to her later work, not searchingbut by inevitable chance,what I foundwas preciselydoors,ways in, tunnelsthrough. One of these laterpoems, TheMoon inYourHands, says: If you take the moon inyour hands and turn it round

(heavy tarnished slightly platter) you're there; sense ofbeginning:

This was to findnot a finality but a beginning.The poem endswith that

when my soulturned round, the ofeverything, perceiving other-side mullein-leaf, dogwood-leaf, moth-wing anddandelion-seed under the ground.
poem Sagesse that I read the great War Trilogy. In Sagesse the photo

Itwas notuntil after the inEvergreen publication, Review /5,ofher

which leads poet and reader farback into childhood, by way of word

graph of anowl-a White FacedScops Owl from Sierra Leone, which isreproduced along withthe poem-starts a train of thought andfeeling

was an introductionto the world of the Trilogy- The Walls Do Not Fall Rod (I946). (I944), Tribute to theAngels (I945), The Floweringof the

and origins word-sound andbackagaintoa present associations, more morefull resonant, ofpossibilities andsubtle awareness, because of that The interpenetration journey. ofpast and present, of mundane reality and intangible reality, istypical of H. D. For me this poem(written inI957)

i82

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DENISE

LEVERTOV

me until Iwas ready These were an experience lifehad been storingfor to begin to receive it. (For I had been inLondon myself throughoutthe periodwhen thesebooks were beingwritten and published, and had, as

been too young to know them;just as I was too young-younger than as a poet, thebombing of London: I lived in the my years-to experience, my own midst of itbut in a sense itdid not happen tome, and though war appeared in it book, in I946, was written during that time, the first

that of them parts -withoutseeing-those even"seen" I cametorecall, Today. But I had inLifeand Letters bookpublication, before appeared,

anxiety.) ofadolescent or as the dark background offstage only

I think this experience? of the Whatwas-is-the core H. D.'s maturity? "Greek" work, the of the earlier precision passionate the icily isit:that
vision, had not been an end,a closed achievement, but a preparation: so built up, poem by poem, as if in the bones, in the thatall the strength

with the greatpoetryof What was it I discovered, face to face at last

world of that clearlight remorseless

Great, bright portal, of rock, shelf inlongledges, fitted rocks tosilver granite, fitted todark, rocks rock to lighter white white against clean cut, behind and the questions and darkness mystery tocarry there was there, Sheshowed questions. darkness andthose tothat came whenshe questions
mystery;which means, not to flood darknesswith a way to penetrate

so darkness, mystery, into buttoenter isdestroyed, darkness light so that

I don't mean evil; not evil but the that it isexperienced.And by darkness

hisarrogance; which manmustshed before Hiddenness OtherSide,the Cosmos emerge; and Aphrodite thing creeping first Seaout of whichthe dande "the earth andinthe earth whirls, of the in little speck whichthe lionseed". "Sirius:
is this? whatmystery

youareseed,
corn near the sand,

I83

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POETRY

enclosed inblack-lead, land. ploughed

Sirius: whatmystery is this?

youaredrowned inthe river; the spring freshets push openthe water-gates. Sirius:
is this? whatmystery

where heat andcracks breaks, the sand-waste,

you are a mist

of snow: white,little flowers.

The "style"-or since style too oftenmeans manner, I would rather means-is invisible:or no, not invisible say themode,the but transparent, somethingone both sees and sees through, like handblown glass of the

mode H. D. spoke of essentials.It is a simplicity not of reductionbut of having gone further, out of the circle of known light,furtherin further towards an unknown center. Whoever wishes a particular example, let him read partVI of The Walls Do Not Fall-the part beginning:

or the smoke-color palest And in this palest water-green. transparent

In me (the worm)clearly isno righteousness, butthis

Iwould like toquote the whole; but it is too long; and it issuch amarvel ousmusical whole thatI cannot bear to quote fragments. It can be found

Ihadthought poems ofasshadowless werefull ofshadows, move planes, ment: correspondences with was tocome. what But I,and perhaps others
i84

Poemsof i925 and saw them anew. "The great, brightportal ... clean cut,white againstwhite" was not the dominant I had thought it.The

inthe GrovePress Selected Poems of H. D. (I957). I hadbegun After toknowthelater I returned poems tothe Collected

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DENISE

LEVERTOV

a knowledge cometorealize this onlythrough my generation, could of of the after-work. withheruntilthe exchanging someletters ing H. D. (andthereafter which herlast illness broke offcommunication). Thewom stroke began her Horace has written that he coulddistinguish anofwhom Gregory Bid Me ToLive, wasnewly Yet eventhough her novel, life. full ofeager and she hadjustreceived the of the GoldMedal forPoetry published, who ofArtsandLetters,* wereat that time many, alas, there Academy who dismissed heras "oneof theImagistes-a herdead,and believed most important poetry read and So little was her poet of that period". Dun forthe work it is,that my homage andRobert great recognized withher tous.Sheherself hadat the time of my second meeting moving of the andhowquickshe some was been youngest young poets; reading whomone can learn moreabout precision; Thereisno poetfrom the ofsound, arises outoffidelity the that miraculously about music, play in of the disappearance, tothetruth of experience; aboutthe possibility ofmanner. the crucible, is(like of which withher death, the almost coincided Egypt, publication inthereader, at tochanges small that givesrise will; a life-experience inHelen, of how far-reaching. The alternations, first, but who knows ofcon of flatness but arenotalternations andintensity prose andpoetry
trastedtone, as in a Bach cantata the vocal parts are varied by the sin *Editor's note: with this we haveasked tribute Denise Levertov Only torecord, amore direct ofwhatH. D.'s workmeant to the write for to Poetry, expression the we should a fewyears add that beforethe awardfrom of this editors magazine, withour Harriet was honoredin she American andLetters, Poetry AcademyofArts which Brandeis Awards forig59,for MonroeMemorial Prizefori958,and in the Barbara were J.V. Cunningham, Howes, Lloyd Franken thejudges chairman, more thantwodecadesago, she berg,Stanley Kunitz,andHenryRago. A little Miss meant tosay what awards Levinson won Poetry's Prize,for1938. Yet, all these poetwas notgen for inthepast fewdecadesthis Levertovrecalls needed saying, of theseer, shehad grown into,in thepoetry known tobe theprophetess, erally her middle yearsandherold age. I85 BidMe To Live in itsdifferent form) aworld which onemay enter ifone She wrote much thathas not been published.Her lastbook, Helen In of energy. to respond towhat she found thereof life, can's seemed to be a surprise to her, and tomove her in a way deeply from faroff in a crowd by her tallgrace,was old and badly crippled; but About a year and a half beforeher death I had theprivilege ofmeet

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POETRY

mustgo inside and liveinthem, livethem through. Indeed, this istrue ofallher work:the moreonereads it,the more it yields. It ispoetry both"pure" and "engaged"; attaining its purity thatis, itsunassailable as word-music, identity the musicof word sounds and therhythmic structure built of them-through its en very gagement, its concern matters with of the greatest importance toevery one: thelife of the soul, theinterplay ofpsychic and material life.
DENISE LEVERTOV

and Helen InEgypt are neitherof them works to be idlydipped into: one

andeachillumines fonias, andcomplements the Me To Live other. Bid

H. D.

IN GREECE

AND

EGYPT

Helen in Egypt,byH. D. Introd.byHorace Gregory. Grove Press. $s.oo. As the lastof a seriesof books froman outstandingpoet whose work stretched over a spanof forty H. D.'s Helen in years, Egyptcannot be con sidered in isolationfrom its siblings.There is an extraordinary unity in H. D.'s work, in theaspectsof her vision. She limitedherselfradically in surface-range, depending on reinforcement rather than expansion. She says: ... be firm in your own small limited / orbitand theshark-jaws / of outer circumstance / will spityou forth: / be indigestible, hard and ungiving, / so that,living within,/ you begetself-out-of-self; / selfless / that pearl-of

great-price.

What are the shaping characteristics of H. D.'s poetry? She was a woman. I, beingborna woman and oppressed!By all the needsand notions of my kind ... wrote Edna St. Vincent Millay; and Elinor Wylie, I am, being woman,hardbeset. / I liveby squeezing froma stone / The little nour yet....

I get. .. .Theircontemporary ishment differs profoundly from either; ... Thereisthat muchcommunity.
The law is different; / if a womanfights/shemustfightby stealth.

There have been poets Greek for a purpose,Greek for a pose, Greek by birth;H. D. is Greek by essence and dedication. The vision ofGreece as an immortalrevelation isat thecore of herwork . .. greater even than thesea / theylive beyond wrack and deathof cities, / and eachgod-likename / i'sas a shrineina godless spoken place. i86

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