Abstract
dc:description.abstractIn section fifteen of the poem The Walls Do Not Fall author Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) address her audience and articulates the purpose of the poet in the following lines: "we are the keepers of the secret,/ the carriers, the spinners/ of the rare intangible thread/ that binds all humanity/ to ancient wisdom,/ to antiquity;/â ¦every concrete object/ has abstract value, is timeless/ in the dream parallel" (Trilogy 24). H.D. mined her own life for charged relationships which she then, through writing, connected to the mythic characters of antiquity whose tales embodied the same struggles she faced. Reading concrete objects as universal symbols which transcend time, her mind meshed the 20th century with previous cultures to create a nexus where the questions embedded in the human spirit are alive on multiple planes. The purpose of this research project is not to define her works as "successful" or "unsuccessful," nor to weigh the works against each other in terms of "advancement." Rather it is to describe the way she manipulates this most reliable of tools, mythic metamorphosis, in works stretching from her early Imagist poetry, through her long poem Trilogy, and finally into her last memoir End To Torment, taking note of the way she uses this tool to form beauty from harsh circumstances and help heal her shattered psyche.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Arts
- Level thesis:degree_level
- masters
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- English
- Department dc:contributor.department
- English
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2007
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Mitchem, Sarah Lewis
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Gardner, Thomas M.
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- D'Aguiar, Frederick M.
- Sorrentino, Paul M.
Subjects
dc:subject × 4Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- etd-11062008-102711
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35614