Emily Dickinson and H.D.

I really enjoyed the discussion on Dickinson this week but I feel like we went more in depth with her than the other poets assigned for the week so I will also be examining H.D. in this entry. I feel bad for Emily Dickinson for people reading her poems and criticizing them when she was only writing them for herself. The personal aspect of her poetry is very striking as she talks about her deepest desires and what she wants as opposed to what things should be like or telling people what to think like Whitman. She is what I would classify as American poetry more so than Whitman because she has the lyrical style that I grew up reading. The verse the structure and the overall flow of the poems.

H.D. is fun to me maybe just beacuse of his initials but its mysterious to me and intriguing. I examined the poem Epitaph, I thought there was something that the speaker and author were trying to get across.

In Epitaph the stanzas are broken up nicely to get the point of each across almost like each a seperate letter to someone else, the dead the living and the dying. The "soliciting illicit fervour" caught my eye as something that is very energetic is in a poem about death. The "lost measure" is what through me for a loop. There seems to be some regret in the speakers voice. There is also the "having lived one hour" which leads me to believe there is something left unfinished but it was pursued to the utmost. I think that H.D. is trying to let the reader know that there is a need to live life without regret or you will be left with that "lost measure" in your song that is your life.