The following notes on the poems of H. D. are written to pay tribute to an American poet whose writings have yet to receive full measure of critical attention in the United States….

Today, and in view of her later poems, it seems somewhat strange that most people still associate her writings only with the cause of "free verse" and "imagism," "the School of Images," that Ezra Pound in 1912 so cheerfully announced held the future "in their keeping." In 1956 H. D. remarked, "One writes the kind of poetry one likes. Other people put labels on it. Imagism was something that was important for poets learning their craft early in this century. But after learning his craft, the poet will find his true direction." Although she learned much from Pound, who included her among Les Imagistes, H. D.'s lyric gift, even in her early poems, soon found its...