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brookexwest's review against another edition
4.0
too little: I know, I feel / the meaning that words hide; / they are anagrams, cryptograms, / little boxes, conditioned / to hatch butterflies...
Gorgeous collection of poems. The Walls definitely resonated more with me, but I feel like these are all poems that I can keep going back to and picking up and finding different nuggets in them.
Gorgeous collection of poems. The Walls definitely resonated more with me, but I feel like these are all poems that I can keep going back to and picking up and finding different nuggets in them.
jenna0010's review against another edition
4.0
H.D. is sharp, soft, in this trilogy that spans tumults of history and desert to sea scapes to lushinterior worlds. A protective spirally shell, an angry female hunger, a magical wavering, wandering foot.
kenningjp's review against another edition
5.0
Incomparable. An absolutely essential read. Imagism taken to another level. Vorticism at its best on display in an utterly distinctive voice.
victoryfish's review against another edition
5.0
But we fight for life,
we fight, they say, for breath,
so what good are your scribblings?
this--we take them with us
beyond death; Mercury, Hermes, Thoth
invented the script, letters, palette;
the indicated flute or lyre-notes
on papyrus or parchment
are magic, indelibly stamped
on the atmosphere somewhere,
forever; remember, O Sword,
you are the younger brother, the latter-born,
your Triumph, however exultant,
must one day be over,
in the beginning
was the Word.
--H.D., The Walls Do Not Fall, section 10
Begun during the London Blitz and completed before the end of the second World War, H.D.'s Trilogy is a much underrated modernist text and a beautifully image-laden read for troubled times. H.D. wrestles with the cultural attitude towards poetry in wartime, her own doubts about art as a combatant for the harshness of reality, and the devaluing of the feminine principle in literature. The Walls Do Not Fall is absolutely enchanting and my favorite of the three sections, filled with allusions to Egyptian and Classical mythology and imbued with a sense of cautious perseverance in the midst of uncertainty. Don't overlook this one--Trilogy is H.D.'s magnum opus, and I can't recommend it enough.
we fight, they say, for breath,
so what good are your scribblings?
this--we take them with us
beyond death; Mercury, Hermes, Thoth
invented the script, letters, palette;
the indicated flute or lyre-notes
on papyrus or parchment
are magic, indelibly stamped
on the atmosphere somewhere,
forever; remember, O Sword,
you are the younger brother, the latter-born,
your Triumph, however exultant,
must one day be over,
in the beginning
was the Word.
--H.D., The Walls Do Not Fall, section 10
Begun during the London Blitz and completed before the end of the second World War, H.D.'s Trilogy is a much underrated modernist text and a beautifully image-laden read for troubled times. H.D. wrestles with the cultural attitude towards poetry in wartime, her own doubts about art as a combatant for the harshness of reality, and the devaluing of the feminine principle in literature. The Walls Do Not Fall is absolutely enchanting and my favorite of the three sections, filled with allusions to Egyptian and Classical mythology and imbued with a sense of cautious perseverance in the midst of uncertainty. Don't overlook this one--Trilogy is H.D.'s magnum opus, and I can't recommend it enough.
braaais's review against another edition
5.0
H. D. consigue crear un universo poético realmente denso a través de su conocimiento de la mitología griega y egipcia bañado en Freud, pero también gracias a su conocimiento de la tradición poética en lengua inglesa.
veethorn's review against another edition
5.0
I need to think about this more, but stunning and epic are poor adjectives to describe what is unquestionably one of our more important modernist works.
morgankailackerman's review against another edition
2.0
Not the biggest fan of poetry. Had to read for a literature class. It was interesting but not as interesting as other poems or poetry books.