H.D.: Set Free to Prophesy 393- The following commentary on Trilogyis substantially the same as the commentary
that appeared in the introduction to CP,but with a stronger emphasis on the prophetic
voice. With this theme the commentary is distinct from, though related to, the many
important interpretations of Trilogythat have appeared in the last two decades, many of
them written from the standpoint of psychiatric theory, as in the studies of Dianne
Chisholm, Susan Edmunds, Claire Buck, and Deborah Kelly Kloepfer listed in the
bibliography. For a study of Trilogyfrom a related point of view see Donna Krolik
Hollenberg, H.D.: The Poetics of Childbirth and Creativity.For a reading of Trilogyin the
context of Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent views of woman, see Cassandra Laity, H.D. and
the Victorian Fin de Siècle,chap. 7. See also the studies by Albert Gelpi and Adalaide Morris
listed in the bibliography. - Susan Gubar, “The Echoing Spell of H.D.’s Trilogy,” Signets,307.
- Susan Schweik, in A Gulf So Deeply Cut: American Women Poets and the Second World
War, has given an eloquent account of the imagery of myrrh and the figure of the
Magdalen in the third part of Trilogy;see her chap. 9, “Myrrh to Myrrh: H.D., War, and
Biblical Narrative.” - H.D.–Pearson Correspondence, H.D. Archive.
- Helen in Egypt,4; hereafter cited as H.
- For detailed interpretations of the poem see the studies by Albert Gelpi, Dianne
Chisholm, Susan Edmunds, Susan Stanford Friedman, Donna Krolik Hollenberg, and
Deborah Kelly Kloepfer listed in the bibliography.