ZEST FOR LIFE IN "OREAD"
Oread" by Hilda Doolittle
Whirl up, sea - -
whirl your pointed pines,
splash your great pines
hurl your green over us,
cover us with your pools of fir
According to Greek mythology, an oread is a nymph, a free-spirited wild woman who wanders happily through the woods, hills, and mountains. She symbolizes the zest of life, the elan vital or vital life-force that imbues life. As such, she is appropriate for the spirit of this poem which is about the freewheeling wildness of nature. The persona in the poem (the person speaking within the poem) might be an oread herself since she addresses the sea as though she's on a first-name basis with it, in communion with it. "Whirl up, sea", she says, as though it will respond to her command. The word "oread" is derived from the Greek word "oros" meaning "mountain" (the oread is primarily a mountain spirit) which, in turn, is derived from the Latin word "oriri" meaning "to rise up" (a mountain is something that has risen up). The meaning "rise up" is important since the person in the poem (perhaps the oread herself) is calling upon the trees and sea to "rise up" and express their vigour and vitality : "Whirl up, sea - - /whirl your pointed pines . . ./hurl your green over us . . . ."
The poem's main image is ambiguous since, when she addresses the "sea" it's not certain whether she means the sea of water or the sea of pine trees. It could be either. A forest of pines looks like a sea during a storm when the wind blows the trees this way and that, and their sharp, pointed tops look like cresting waves, and the multitude of swaying green branches like a green turbulent sea. When she asks the sea to "splash your great pines/on our rocks" it could refer to the tree branches broken off during a storm and crashing to the earth below. Similarly, a sea of water can look like a pine forest during a storm (the wavecrests like pine-tops), so the image works both ways.
This poem is a call-to-arms, asking the forces of nature to "whirl", "hurl", and "splash" us with their "pointed" weapons. But the intention is not to destroy us, but rather to arouse us to life. The persona seems, at one point, to identify with the "rocks" when she says, "splash your great pines/ on our rocks." If she is like a rock, then she would be a lifeless, unmoving object. In that case, she could not be an oread but perhaps only a being who secretly longs to be an oread. In asking the pines to splash her, she wants to be awakened, brought back to life (back to her true oread nature) by the green life-energy of the trees and sea. She want the points of the pines to pierce her, so that her innermost being can experience the freshness and force of nature. She wants the "green" to "hurl" itself over her, so she can be overwhelmed and captivated by its beauty and liveliness. She does not want to be a bystander. She wants to be covered and submerged in nature.
"Green" is an important colour here since it is the colour of chlorophyll which is the essential element of plant-life and therefore of life itself. A pine tree, with its stiff branches and sharp needles, is fierce with life, and thus appropriate to this poem. With their bristling needles, pine trees look electrified. The persona wants to feel their electricity. She wants to experience the greatness of these "great pines."
The sounds in the poem make you feel you are in the middle of a storm. You can hear the wind roaring in the "ir" sound of "whirl", "hurl", "cover", "over", and "fir". You can hear the explosive force of the storm in the plosive consonants of "pointed", "pines", "pools", and "splash". It sounds as though the water and wind at first meet resistance from the rocks and trees, but then pierce through. Many words are onomatopoeic in the poem, thus imitating the sound of the storm. "Whirl" begins with a yielding consonant imitating the uninhibited fury of the storm. The yielding "s" in "sea" conveys the same effect. In "splash" you can hear the waves at first rolling in uninhibitedly in the "s" sound, and then meeting the resistance of the shore in the "p" sound, but finally breaking through and lashing out in the "sh" sound. The sound of the foam or perhaps the sound of the rain is echoed in the "s" sound at the end of "pines", "rocks", "us", and "pools". If the persona feels like a rock, she must feel confined since "rock" (in its singular form) comes to an abrupt stop with its hard "k" sound like the edge of a rock. You can also hear the cry of life in the assonance of "green" and "sea." The long "ee" vowel sounds like life, aroused by the storm, is screaming out to proclaim its existence. The assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia therefore dramatize the sound of the waves, the wind, and the life cry of nature.
The length of the lines is mimetic too. You might imagine each line to be like a separate wave crashing upon the shore, with the first and fourth lines being shorter waves. Or you might imagine each line being a wavecrest, some higher, some lower. The unevenness of the lines could also imitate the erratic fury of the storm, blowing things helter-skelter. It's appropriate that the last line is the longest since it "cover(s) us with your pools of fir", leaving you completely covered and overwhelmed.