H. D.'s "Hermetic Definition": The Poet as Archetypal Mother

Fortunately, the exclusive association of H.D. with the imagist movement is over. A larger awareness of the range of her prose and verse developed with the publication of Tribute to Freud (1956), the novel Bid Me to Live (1960), and the long poem Helen in Egypt, which appeared in 1961, the year of her death.' This awareness has continued to grow, thanks to recent new editions of some of her post-imagist work2 and the publication of Definition (1972), containing three new poems.3 Thus far, these new poems-Hermetic Definition, Sagesse, and Winter Love-have received little attention. Admittedly they are difficult: elliptical, personal, and imbued with mythology and spiritualism. But they also have the compelling power of self-possession and fervor that H.D.'s work always shows. In the hope of stimulating discussion of these poems, this essay is devoted to the longest of the three, the title poem, Hermetic Definition, completed in 1961. It may be the last poem she wrote;