The Contest (by H.D.)
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) in the 1910s
The Contest
[from Sea Garden, 1916]
I
Your stature is modelled
with straight tool-edge:
you are chiselled like rocks
that are eaten into by the sea.
The ridge of your breast is taut,
and under each the shadow is sharp,
and between the clenched muscles
of your slender hips.
II
You stand rigid and mighty—
granite and the ore in rocks;
a great band clasps your forehead
and its heavy twists of gold.
You are splendid,
your arms are fire;
you have entered the hill-straits-—
a sea treads upon the hill-slopes.
Myrtle is about your head,
The narcissus has copied the arch
III
Myrtle is about your head,
you have bent and caught the spray:
each leaf is sharp
against the lift and furrow
of your bound hair.
The narcissus has copied the arch
of your slight breast:
your feet are citron-flowers,
your knees, cut from white-ash,
your thighs are rock-cistus.
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Posted by Jesus Crisis at 8/15/2009 3:55 AM 
Categories: 1900s, Writing, Doolittle (Hilda), American
Tags: American Literature Imagiste 1916 Sea Garden H.D. Imagist American Poetry Hilda Doolittle
Categories: 1900s, Writing, Doolittle (Hilda), American
Tags: American Literature Imagiste 1916 Sea Garden H.D. Imagist American Poetry Hilda Doolittle
i often wonder that, although academic poetry seems to owe everything to the school of ``imagists``(h.d. among the chiefest of their number), the academy does not make manifest their indebtedness...in other words, i humbly suggest that is a simple matter to trace the,``show, don`t tell``pedagogic method employed in university creative writing programs, SOLELY to the ~~imagists~~this obvious fact, however,seems to elude the professorial class, who would rather him/haw and obfuscate, rather than speak their PROSE bluntly and without subterfuge...
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As a retired prof I find Jim's comment thoughtful and indicative of what we often miss in trying to "analyze" poetry. Descriptions in imagery often do obfuscate the meaning and confuse the reader. I presume this poem is a description of the image of a Roman statue with the "show but don't tell" in words that plaster this statue with
thoughts that cannot be made clear to the mind of the reader and cover the meaning with sea mist. And I'm not talking about just pedagogy but literary criticism as I perceive it.
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