Within the Walls and What Do I Love?

This volume presents two rare works by the American poet H.D.: ‘Within the Walls’, a collection of fourteen short stories, and ‘What Do I Love?’, a set of three long poems. Written during World War II in London, where H.D. chose to stay despite offers of refuge in the U.S., the stories and poems recount her experiences during the Blitz. In taut simplicity, these texts capture the essence of war-torn London with the authority of a poet with her boots on the ground.

Annette Debo’s nuanced introduction sets the cultural scene for these works. Using extensive archival research, she positions the literature in three contexts: H.D.’s personal life, the story of women civilians at war, and the international history of World War II. Debo helps us comprehend a time and place that transformed “H.D. Imagiste” into the bold war writer evidenced in this volume and also opens our eyes to the impact of these war experiences on H.D.’s more well-known works.