"Oread" by Hilda Doolittle
This is a short poem that seems to be very straight forward. Personally it takes me awhile to understand a poem, so I was rather pleased when I read this one because it actually made sense to me. This poem expresses H.D.'s ability to paint such great pictures in the reader's mind, which is one of the reasons why she is considered one of the great imagist. In this poem she is talking into nature as if there is some type of God or spirit in the mountains. When she says, "Whirl up, sea" (Line 1) you initially get a feeling that she is demanding and shouting out. I wasn't sure exactly what an "Oread" was so I did some researching on it and found out that it is a type of greek nymph which is like a spirit in nature or in this example, the mountains. I realized that she was praising to the mountains because she says, "Whirl your pointed pines. / Splash your great pines" (Lines 2-3). This led me to believe that she was praying to her "Oread" for rain, and for it to turn the mountains "green."
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