Comparing The Poetry Of William Carlos Williams And H. D.

Imagism was a movement in the 20th century that focused on having a clear message and description in poems in order to provide vivid imagery for the reader. These poems often did not rhyme, had irregular beat, and depended on the power of an image to convey an emotion. It has been described as one of the most influential movements in English poetry. Two common and popular Imagist poets at the time and even today are: William Carlos Williams and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Both of these writers knew each other from college both share similarities in their poems. They both use imagery and write about nature in their poems. However, they also share many differences as well. I will compare and contrast some of Williams poems with H.D.’s poems. Williams Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1883. He attended the School of Dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania and first met and became friends with Hilda Doolittle. Williams was a pediatrician for most of his life before he retired due to poor health. This is when Williams became more involved with writing and seeked to create a new form of poetry.
Williams imagist poetry has a social impact in America and a reason for that is his use of the common English language in his poems. Some of Williams most popular poems are; Poem (as the cat), Spring and All, This Is Just To Say, The Red Wheelbarrow, and The Dance. Hilda Doolittle, also known simply as, “H.D.”, was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1886. She attended college at Bryn Mawr for two years before she moved to London. Doolittle experienced a series of unfortunate events; her brother and father died, her marriage broke, and she nearly had a fatal flu. Luckily, she met a man by the name of Winifred Ellerman who brought her back up on her feet. Doolittle began writing autobiographies in the 1930’s before she felt the need to write longer works of poetry. She also wrote many historical pieces and poems with references to Greek mythology. Doolittle’s imagery is very compelling and vivid. Some of H.D.’s most popular poems are; Acon, Cassandra, Helen, Leda, and Adonis. Spring And All is a poem by Williams about the coming of spring. Williams starts off the poem by explaining the landscapes of an area near a “contagious hospital”. This form of imagery sets the mood for the poem as Williams begins to write about the eerie atmosphere of the ending of winter; “waste of broad, muddy fields / brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen / patches of standing water / the scattering of tall trees” (5-8). He continues writing about winter for a few more lines and then suddenly brings up spring into the mix: “They enter the new world naked, / cold, uncertain of all / save that they enter. All about them / the cold, familiar wind-” (16-19). In these lines, Williams uses personification to describe the coming of spring. The descriptions and imagery about the new plants are identical to that of a baby being born. Williams also begins using words such as “quicken” and “clarity” to change the mood as opposed to words such as “sluggish” and “dead” in the previous lines describing winter. The poem ends with; “But now the stark dignity of / entrance-Still, the profound change / has come upon them: rooted, they / grip down and begin to awaken” (24-27). The poem ends abruptly and signifies that spring is a metaphor for the beginning of new things. This poem features all kinds of imagery and personification to deliver its message. Oread is a poem by Hilda Doolittle about the Greek mythological figure of the same name. Unlike Williams poem, Spring And All, Oread is a very short poem consisting of only 6 lines:
“Whirl up, sea— / whirl your pointed pines, / splash your great pines / on our rocks, / hurl your green over us, / cover us with your pools of fir” (1-6). According to Greek mythology, Oread was a nymph (a mythological spirit of nature that is a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations) that lived in the mountains and ravines. In the beginning of the poem, Oread is commanding the sea to “whirl your pointed pines,” as a metaphor for the trees in the forest. This is one way that Doolittle uses imagery throughout the poem. She also gets straight to the point in comparing the ocean and the forest without using any additional terminology which is an important aspect of the Imagist ideology. The poem ends with Oread commanding the sea to “hurl your green over us” and to “cover us with your pools of fir”. Throughout the entirety of the poem, Oread is commanding the sea to cover land. Doolittle writes this poem in such a way that the sea is one with the forest diction-wise. The literal message of the poem reflects the actual diction and imagery being used by Doolittle with Oread’s commands. Oread’s commands are met purely through her language. Oread is compiled through free verse, similarly to Williams Spring And All. Doolittle also personifies the sea and compares it to the forest. Finally, Doolittle writes about nature in comparison to Spring And All. The Red Wheelbarrow is a poem by Williams about the importance of a red wheelbarrow. Similarly to Oread by H.D., The Red Wheelbarrow is relatively small, consisting only of 8 lines:
“so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens.” (1-8).
Williams drags this poem on by creating an interest with the reader in his first line, “so much depends”. Williams does not reveal what he is talking about until the 4th line which is just one word; “barrow”. The fact that Williams splits the word “wheel” from the word “barrow” makes the reader visualize that the wheelbarrow is composed of two different and distinct parts. He also does this in lines 5 and 6 with “rain” and “water”. Williams ends the poem suggesting that the red wheelbarrow is beside white chickens. Again, Williams carefully describes the chickens as being “white”. The Red Wheelbarrow is a free verse poem that is composed of only one sentence. I believe the main purpose of this poem was to show imagery in the most minimalist
sense. Helen is a poem by Doolittle about the Greek mythological figure named Helen. According to Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the most beautiful women of Greece. Helen was also an indirect cause of the Trojan War. The poem starts off with suggesting that Greece hates Helen, “All Greece hates / the still eyes in the white face,” (1-2). The poem continues to portray Greece’s hate over Helen in lines 6 through 8. “All Greece reviles / the wan face when she smiles, / hating it deeper still” (6-8). Doolittle uses stronger diction to emphasize the hate coming from Greece using words like “reviles” and “hating it deeper still”. The poem finally ends with Greece not being capable of loving Helen unless she were dead: “could love indeed the maid, / only if she were laid, / white ash amid funereal cypresses” (16-18). Throughout the poem, Helen’s body alone is the fuel to Greece’s hatred over her. Helen is composed in free verse similar to William’s The Red Wheelbarrow but features a few rhyme schemes here and there. Also, Helen is a much longer poem and focuses more on using imagery to describe Helen and her story rather than The Red Wheelbarrow that simply focuses on imagery in itself. In conclusion, William Carlos Williams and Hilda Doolittle both share some interesting similarities as well as a few contrasting elements in their poems. The main similarity with these two artists is the fact that they were both a part of the Imagist movement. Their poems typically did not rhyme, had irregular beat, and depended on the power of an image to convey an emotion. Williams and Doolittle both use imagery and write about nature in their poems but they also share many differences as well such as the content of their poems and the topics they choose to write about.