"Oread”
“Oread” is an imagist poem written by Hilda Doolittle. As an imagist poem, it gets straight to the point. It uses clean cut description and sharp language.In this poem it speaks of an oread, which in Greek mythology an oread is a mountain nymph. Just by the title, it is known that this poem is spoken by an oread. The nymph is trying to unite 2 worlds, the land and the sea. The whole poem speaks of them both. The nymph refers to the ocean’s waves as pine trees, therefore describing both. The nymph begins by commanding the ocean to “whirl up” and ends with the nymph still demanding it to cover the land. By the commands the nymph gives, it makes one believe that it is someone how trying to get the sea to unite with land, even if it is in a forceful manner. This poem can clearly be said that it is written in an imperative mood. Though the poem may be short it has a lot to say, with each and every word.
Since it is known that the speaker is a nymph, the poem can be easily imagined with each line. The poems begins with “whirl up, sea.” This line just informed us that the sea is involved and the nymph is very demanding. It did not ask nicely, it demanded that the sea whirl up. In the second line is where we get a taste of the fact that this poem is about land and sea. The nymph tells the sea to whirl its pointed pines. Now referring the sea’s waves as pine trees. Line 4 “on our rocks” just gave us a bit of insight that this nymph is not alone. The nymph is telling the sea to splash its great pines on to the rocky shore, where other nymphs or land animals may be. When the nymph commands the sea to hurl itself, it almost becomes somewhat violent. This could be that the nymph is desperate for the two worlds to unite. By the very last sentence, “cover us with your pools of fir” the poem finally acknowledges that water really is involved,