D.H.LAWRENCE POETRY

PART ONE � Biographical/Historical Context

The image with which D. H. Lawrence most associated was the Phoenix, whose presence rises eternal from its own ashes. Plagued by tuberculosis, complex psychological issues between himself and his mother and wife, and the suppression of his works because of their frank sexual depictions, Lawrence has arisen from the ashes of a premature death at age 44 to represent one of the most influential literary artists of the 20th century. Lawrence's birth occurred in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on September 11, 1885 and his death in a sanatorium on the French Riviera came on March 2, 1930 (Encarta, 1). Lawrence was the son of a coal miner who drank to excess and beat his wife and children. This caused him to become deeply attached to his mother, "Lawrence's affections were fixed upon his mother, an almost crippling attachment which is disclosed in Lawrence's best novel, the autobiographical Sons and Lovers" (Untermeyer 461). Her death when Lawrence was twenty-six greatly affected his health and he soon fell in love with a married woman who would become his one close human bond in life, Frieda von Richtofen. They eloped two years after meeting and were never to enjoy much peace because, since she was German and Lawrence detested the artificiality of modern society, they became the victims of the spy-hunting fever that swept the region as World War I began. Lawrence fled England never t

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voice,/I do forget your eyes that searching through/The mists perceive our marriage, and rejoice." Still, the speaker must admit that when the mood is right when he sees his love's "blanched face at" his "breast", he can "hide" his "eyes from diligent work." Then, even nature is hidden by the bedroom blinds because the nature of the goings-on inside the bedroom are as peaceful as any creation in nature, "And I do lift my aching arms to you,/And I do lift my anguished, avid breast,/And I do weep for very pain of you,/And fling myself at the doors of sleep, for rest./And I do toss through the troubled night for you,/Dreaming your yielded mouth is given to mine,/Feeling your strong breast carry me on into/The peace where sleep is stronger even than wine." My reaction to these poems is that they are an excellent selection to demonstrate how the young poet Lawrence was experiencing the pain of leaving behind his boyhood illusions, coming to terms with the death of his mother and his own sexual feelings for her, and trying to find himself through others upon whom he could place his affections and emotions. His near resentment of having to go through this process is evident, as is the fact that he is both fearful and hopeful that "

Category: Literature - D