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Simaetha by H. D.

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A woman named Simaetha carries out a ritual spell, dyeing wool and burning herbs in an attempt to win back — or perhaps punish — a man who has hurt her.

Poet
H. D.
Composed
1921 · Modernist
Core theme
Identity
The PoemFull text

Simaetha

H. D., 1921

Drenched with purple, drenched with dye, my wool, bind you the wheel-spokes-- turn, turn, turn my wheel! Drenched with purple, steeped in the red pulp of bursting sea-sloes-- turn, turn, turn my wheel! (Ah did he think I did not know, I did not feel-- what wrack, what weal for him: golden one, golden one, turn again Aphrodite with the yellow zone, I am cursed, cursed, undone! Ah and my face, Aphrodite, beside your gold, is cut out of white stone!) Laurel blossom and the red seed of the red vervain weed, burn, crackle in the fire, burn, crackle for my need! Laurel leaf, O fruited branch of bay, burn, burn away thought, memory and hurt! (Ah when he comes, stumbling across my sill, will he find me still, fragrant as the white privet, or as a bone, polished in wet and sun, worried of wild beaks, and of the whelps' teeth-- worried of flesh, left to bleach under the sun, white as ash bled of heat, white as hail blazing in sheet-lightning, white as forked lightning rending the sleet?)

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

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§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A woman named Simaetha carries out a ritual spell, dyeing wool and burning herbs in an attempt to win back — or perhaps punish — a man who has hurt her. She fluctuates between deep sorrow and intense magic, invoking Aphrodite and envisioning herself as either beautiful and fragrant upon his return or as faded and lifeless as a bone parched in the sun. It’s a poem about heartbreak that resonates more like a fever than a simple lament.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. Drenched with purple, / drenched with dye, my wool,

    Editor's note

    The poem begins in the middle of a ritual. Simaetha is dyeing wool — a simple domestic task transformed into something powerful and ceremonial. The repeated word "drenched" and the command "turn, turn, turn my wheel" create an incantation-like rhythm, as if a spell is being tightened with each turn of the spindle.

  2. Drenched with purple, / steeped in the red pulp

    Editor's note

    The second stanza reinforces the same imagery, this time with dye sourced from "bursting sea-sloes"—wild, coastal, and a bit violent. The red bleeds in with the purple, and the wheel keeps turning. H.D. creates a hypnotic rhythm that reflects the obsessive loop of a mind unable to let go.

  3. (Ah did he think / I did not know,

    Editor's note

    The parentheses indicate a pause — this reveals the inner voice, the raw emotion beneath the ritual act. Simaetha realizes she has been tricked or left behind. She turns to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, but her tone is more desperate than reverent. The stark difference between the "golden" goddess and her own face "cut out of white stone" is striking: she perceives herself as cold, pale, and helpless next to divine beauty.

  4. Laurel blossom and the red seed / of the red vervain weed,

    Editor's note

    Back to the ritual. Laurel and vervain are both plants tied to magic and purification in ancient traditions. She burns them, asking the fire to erase "thought, memory and hurt" — she longs to be emptied out, to stop feeling. The sharp, crackling sounds mimic the noise of things burning.

  5. (Ah when he comes, / stumbling across my sill,

    Editor's note

    The second parenthetical marks the emotional climax of the poem. She envisions his return and wonders if she will be "fragrant as the white privet" — alive, soft, and desirable — or merely a bleached bone, picked apart by birds, dogs, and the elements. The imagery intensifies from bone to ash to hail to forked lightning, with each image becoming whiter and more violent. She is questioning whether love will leave her intact or completely shatter her.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone is both feverish and incantatory—it shifts between a calm, controlled ritual and an anguish that’s hard to contain. H.D. maintains a clipped and repetitive style in the outer stanzas, as if trying to hold it all together through action, while the parenthetical sections burst open into something more raw and desperate. There’s fury present, but also self-pity, and a stark clarity about the effects of love on a person.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

The spinning wheel
The wheel serves as both a household tool and a mystical device. In ancient love magic, a spinning wheel or rhombus was utilized to bring a lover back. Its rotation also hints at obsession—the mind fixating on the same hurt repeatedly, unable to let go.
Purple and red dye
Purple symbolized royalty and passion in ancient times, known for being costly and difficult to produce. Staining the wool represents a transformation — Simaetha seeks to alter her circumstances through ritual, yet the colors also evoke thoughts of bruising, blood, and the intensity of emotion.
Aphrodite / the golden one
Aphrodite embodies the ideal of beauty and the strength of erotic love. Simaetha calls upon her as both a source of support and a painful reminder — the goddess is radiant and flawless, while Simaetha views herself as cold and stone-white. This appeal to Aphrodite is as much a plea of inadequacy as it is a prayer.
The bleached bone
The bone—stripped of flesh, gnawed by beaks and teeth, left to fade in the sun and rain—serves as the poem's most powerful image of how abandonment affects a person. It symbolizes complete erasure of identity, with grief transforming the body into something inhuman and anonymous.
Burning herbs (laurel, vervain)
Both plants have deep-rooted ties to prophecy, purification, and magic. Burning them represents a conscious choice — Simaetha seeks to erase her own memories and pain through fire, much like someone would burn a letter they can't bear to read anymore.
White (stone, ash, hail, lightning)
White accumulates throughout the poem as a symbol of extremity — not purity, but erasure. White stone feels cold and lifeless; ash is all that remains after something has burned away; hail and lightning are violent and blinding. By the end, white transforms into the color of a self that has been entirely consumed.

§06Historical context

Historical context

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) played a key role in the Imagist movement, which focused on clear, vivid imagery instead of the sentimental style of the Victorian era. In this poem, she draws inspiration from Theocritus's *Idyll II*, a Greek pastoral poem where a woman named Simaetha casts a binding spell to win back her unfaithful lover, Delphis. H.D. discards Theocritus's narrative framework, presenting us only with the ritual and the emotions — no background, no resolution. Written in the early twentieth century, this poem reflects H.D.'s own struggles with turbulent relationships, including her complex ties with Ezra Pound and her marriage to Richard Aldington. Her engagement with classical Greek sources went beyond mere decoration; she invoked the voices of ancient women to express feelings that were too raw to articulate in her own name.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

Who is Simaetha?

Simaetha is a character in Idyll II, a poem by the ancient Greek poet Theocritus. In this poem, she conducts a magic ritual to try to win back her lover, Delphis. H.D. takes Simaetha's name and the ritual scene but removes the narrative, focusing solely on the emotional essence of the experience.

What is the spinning wheel ritual about?

In ancient Greek folk magic, a spinning wheel or rhombus played a role in love spells—the belief was that turning it would "turn" the lover back to you. H.D. employs this concept as both a literal ritual act and a metaphor for obsessive thinking, where the mind endlessly circles the same pain.

Why are parts of the poem in parentheses?

The parenthetical sections reveal the speaker's inner voice breaking through the ritual's controlled surface. The outer stanzas represent the spell being performed, while the parentheses express her true feelings underneath—grief, rage, self-doubt, and fear. This technique illustrates the simultaneous experience of two events.

What does the bone imagery mean at the end?

The bone—picked clean by birds and dogs, faded by sun and rain—symbolizes the complete devastation wrought by grief. Simaetha wonders if she will be whole when he returns, or if love has already transformed her into something unrecognizable. The increasing imagery of whiteness (ash, hail, lightning) implies that the destruction has already begun.

Why does she compare herself to white stone next to Aphrodite?

Aphrodite shines with a golden warmth, radiating desirability. In contrast, Simaetha views herself as cold, pale, and more like a statue than a living being. This moment of harsh self-reflection reveals her belief that she can't measure up to the beauty that the goddess embodies, and that this perceived shortfall is a reason for her abandonment.

Is this poem about revenge or about getting him back?

Both elements are present, and the poem leaves the tension between them unresolved. The ritual could serve as a binding spell to bring him back, or it might act as a curse. The burning of "thought, memory and hurt" hints that she also wishes to stop loving him completely. H.D. maintains this ambiguity throughout — even Simaetha may not be sure of her own desires.

What is Imagism, and how does this poem fit into it?

Imagism was a literary movement in the early 1900s that emphasized precise and concrete images, avoiding unnecessary words and traditional meter. This poem exemplifies that approach — H.D. constructs the entire emotional argument using vivid images (dyed wool, burning herbs, bleached bones) instead of vague declarations about love or pain.

What does vervain have to do with magic?

Vervain (verbena) was a key plant in ancient and medieval magic, often linked to love spells, purification, and protection. Burning it with laurel — a plant sacred to Apollo and tied to prophecy — highlights that Simaetha's ritual is rooted in genuine ancient practices rather than merely serving as poetic embellishment.

Citation

Cite this poem

MLA

D., H. "Simaetha." 1921. Storgy, https://storgy.com/poems/simaetha-h-d/.

APA

D., H. (1921). Simaetha. Storgy. https://storgy.com/poems/simaetha-h-d/

TeacherAP Lit Q1 scaffold — preview

Row A — Thesis

1 pt

In H. D.'s 'SIMAETHA,' the speaker's compulsive ritual of dyeing, burning, and invoking Aphrodite enacts not simply a love spell but a grammar of self-dissolution: the woman performing the rite is both the agent of magic and its most …

  • Row B — Evidence + Commentary4 pts
  • Row C — Sophistication1 pt
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