In this era of gross illiteracy and a complete lack of knowledge of even the most significant literary figures, I might be able to do a small service in my time writing in this "blog" by informing those who read these words of some of those figures I feel worth at least a passing level of acquaintance.
Hilda Doolittle is an example of just such an under-regarded figure in literary history. For those that know of her, the title of this entry will feel ridiculously redundant, as nearly all of Hilda Doolittle's work touched on the divine. She melded beautifully the religious tradition of cultures across the world into one masterful tapestry of connection to a greater divinity which each religion attempts to touch. By weaving together those universal symbols connected to what Jung referred to as the archetypes linked in the human "collective unconscious," H.D. unified eras, experiences and beliefs into one great timeless experience of "Now."
H.D. wrote her Opus, a trilogy of collected poems entitled The Walls Do Not Fall, Tribute to the Angels, and The Flowering of the Rod while residing in London among the devastation of German attacks in 1944. The first poem of her first collection is an example of this powerful conglomeration as she seamlessly melds the images of destruction with powerful religious symbolism. This pattern continues throughout her work as she flows seamlessly from the past to the present and from the mundane to the exceptional.
An excerpt of this work can be found online at:
http://www.legacy-project.org/lit/display.html?ID=97
H.D. sees the divine dwelling amongst the everyday. She sees ancient power shining through ruin and the exceptional peeking through the ordinary, and though the result isn't always hopeful or beautiful, the revelations are always profuse with awe. I find Hilda Doolittle worth reading because for me, she inspires fear, amazement, wonder and, most importantly, personal introspection and revelation. Though sometimes hard to follow due to her often non-linear narrative and her use of symbols that can be obscure, her work is most certainly worth the effort.
Copyright 2005 S.L. Olson
