Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
H.D. and Ezra, sitting' in a tree…. Yup, you guessed it. Two of the most celebrated poets of the twentieth century were once lovers. Of course, that was before Ezra Pound told H.D. that her poetry was strange and not as important as his own. Ouch. We're betting that one stung. H.D. and Pound may have been the Brangelina of their day, but every celebrity couple has to end some time. In their case, it happened when Pound disused her poetry, took up with another woman, and then suggested a three-way. Those 1910s were wild times (source).
And her real name is…Hilda Doolittle. We know. We'd go by H.D., too.
According to our sources, Ezra Pound, H.D., and Richard Aldington got together and decided to start a new poetic form: Imagism. Like all good things, it started in a café in Paris. And unlike all the poetic movements of the past, Imagism rejected unnecessary words or rhymes. It was all about clear, direct images – and no superfluous language. Its trimmed-down logic might have seemed strange at the time, but it quickly became recognized as groundbreaking new work (source).