"The wind had ruffled her petal": H.D.'s floral identity

This study analyzes H.D.'s first volume of poetry Sea Garden and her three autobiographical prose texts that make up the Madrigal cycle: HERmione, Asphodel, and Paint It Today. The personal narratives were written in the 1920s, but all were published posthumously. However, these novels portray H.D.s life around the time of her writing Sea Garden (1916). Although the early verse collection has been studied and examined more than any other H.D. work, the autobiographical prose has yet to be sufficiently analyzed in relation to the Imagist poetry. The following research and analysis focuses on similarities with botanical imagery in both the early poetry and the particular prose. This floral profusion exemplifies an overarching theme in H.D.s oeuvre, but also serves as H.D.s vehicle of personal expression. The placement of the autobiographical prose in dialogue with the Sea Garden collection portrays a new personal view of H.D.s impersonal lyrics.