The Beginnings of Poethood

Abstract This chapter gives a brief survey of pertinent biographical details, especially Aldington’s education and his relationship with H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), whom he met in 1911 and married in 1913. The chapter discusses the gaps in Aldington’s education and the extent to which he (like H.D.) was an autodidact, who read widely in classical literature throughout his life but at times misconstrued some of what he had read. It examines the importance that he and H.D. found in studying Greek and Latin together and attempting, almost from the beginning of their relationship, to translate ancient poetry together. It also discusses the time they spent travelling in Italy and especially on Capri in 1913, and the importance that this assumed for them both in their ‘Hellenism’ (which was based on a largely imaginative view of an idealized ancient Greece) and in their emotional lives. It considers some of the tensions and difficulties in their relationship and the effect on these of their belief that ancient Greek views of sexuality had been free from guilt or shame. The chapter offers readings of several of Aldington’s early translations and original poems, including some previously unpublished works, and examines the importance of classics for his formation of his poetic practice. It looks closely at one of his strangest works, a collection of lesbian love poems written in the voice of two ancient Greek women, Myrrhine and Konallis, and discusses the implications of these poems for Aldington’s views of sexuality and gender in his imagined ‘Hellas’. The chapter prints for the first time a long ‘Myrrhine and Konallis’ poem that was previously unpublished.