This article originally appeared in The H.D. Newsletter, vol. These assumptions are simply untrue, as anyone knows who attempts to trace her allusions to their sources. In her conversation with classical works H.D. shows intimate knowledge of original texts and a keen awareness of their possible interplay with her own. Anyone who has been puzzled by the sensuous obscurity of this poem may turn to Ovid's Metamorphoses 11.229-37.
Myrtles grow near by, a grove Of double-coloured berries.
In their midst There lies a grotto, formed maybe by art, Maybe by nature, rather though by art, Where Thetis used to come, naked, astride Her bridled dolphin. Sensing the acumen within H.D.'s reading of Ovid, we may then notice a deeper play with her source. In her creation of lyric presence H.D. reimagines voice and perspective. Ovid's narrative voice possesses detachment and breadth of vision. In this moment the narrator pauses to set a scene, to demarcate spatial territories, within yet another story of violent sexual assault.