H.D. and Sappho

I thought it was interesting that one author in particular (Eileen Gregory) decided to connect H.D. and Sappho. Having read quite a lot of Sapphor recently for a Classics course, I can certainly see how the two females' work might be compared. Sappho was generally known for her tenderness of words and her ability to capture emotion in the lines she wrote. Nature was also a resounding theme in her poetry and the imagery she creates with nature is astoundingly convincing. Similarly, H.D. is trying to create an image with the "Sea Rose" that reinforces the nature theme. However, in Sappho's poetry, much of her imagery and content was so florid and emotional that I found myself getting lost in the nature part of the poetry and not focusing on the metaphors she used. But I think that H.D. has solved the problem of too muchnature my making those images almost acidic in a way. She represents the beauty of a blossoming rose, but also its ability to fade and wither away. Also, H.D. takes the literal meaning of the rose and transforms it so it almost becomes a human in a way. The bad things that happen to it are things that we would think might happen in our own lives. For instance, being "marred," "lifted," or "flung" seems improbable for a rose, and more probable for a human. I think H.D.'s word connotations serve the purpose of making the reader humanize the rose in a very emotional and intimate way. This certainly seems like a progression from Sappho, whose Ancient way of writing was in effect a masterpiece, but nature was so totally offset from the human form and human emotion. I find it interesting that H.D. wrote a poem about Helen of Troy and then did such a florid poem like this to possibly imitate and expand on Sappho. Perhaps she has a fascination with the classic realm, but it seems she takes the themes of that realm and infinitely expands upon them in her own way. My only wish is that she would have done that for all Classical works, to make them entirely more interesting and relevant for young students like me.