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74 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
"1. Direct treatment of the 'thing' whether subjective or objective.
"2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the
presentation.
"3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the
musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome." 4
It was the third point that opened the doors to the campfollowers
of vers libre, and created a certain amount of confusion.
A lengthier version of these principles, "A few Don'ts by an
Imagiste", was contributed by Pound to the March, 1913 issue
of Poetry. It attracted, among others, Amy Lowell, who immediately
wrote her first Imagist poem, "In a Garden". Pound later
included this poem in Des Imagistes, an anthology, which was published
in New York on April 20, 1914.
Of the early Imagists, only H.D. continued to write in this
vein throughout her career. Richard Aldington considered her
poem, "Hermes of the Ways," which appeared in The Egoist,
February 2, 1914, one of the best works in this style. The following
stanza illustrates the mode:
The great sea foamed,
gnashed its teeth about me;
But you have waited,
where sea-grass tangles with
shore-grass.
H.D. and Richard Aldington, both having a passion for things
Greek, had become infatuated with each other while making the
rounds of the museums. They were married on October 28, 1913.
Aldington says that when he returned from the war, he was
rather nervous. He and H.D. were divorced. She went off to Europe
with the bride of another intimate of the Poundian circle, the
novelist Winifred Bryher. Bryher was the only daughter of Sir
John Ellerman, the richest ship-owner in England.
Bryher had introduced Aldington to her father, who invited him
to dinner. Learning that the young man was a struggling poet,