David Herbert Lawrence's life and literary career development

David Herbert Lawrence was born in Eastwood, England in 1885. His father was a miner and his was mother a retired teacher. While young, Lawrence spent much of his time confined to his bed with tuberculosis. In this time he became very close to his mother. His mother was determined that he would not be a miner like his father and encouraged him to study. He won a scholarship to Nottingham High School but did not excel in school and so dropped out. It was while he was working in a surgical appliance factory that he met Jessie Chambers. Chambers tutored Lawrence and he later gained a teachers certificate and began teaching. In 1912 his mother died and the grief of this forced him to give up teaching. From this point on he took to writing.

In his writing career he has had success with poetry, short stories, novels, essays and plays. It is perhaps only his plays that did not receive success, with only three of his eight plays being published and those published in the 1960's, well after his death.

Lawrence was also a big traveller and also produced travel books in his time. He died in 1930 in France.

It was with his poetry that his writing first became noticed. In 1909 his friend Jessie Chambers sent some of his poems to the editor of the English Review, a new and admired literary magazine. The editor of the magazine was the critic and novelist, Ford Madox Heuffer. The magazine printed some of the poems, Lawrence met with Heuffer and Heuffer told him that he would be glad to read any of his work. (Worthen) From this Lawrence became part of the literary circle mixing with others such as Ezra Pound, H.G. Wells and Yeats. While Lawrence was for a time part of this literary circle he did not enjoy it saying, "I am no Society man - it bores me." (Boulton I 156) From that point on he lived his life away from writers' circles, living outside of the cities and except for a few friends maintaining a solitary life, yet the influence of this time in his life is clear in many of his works.

It is with his novels that Lawrence is best known. And more for the controversy surrounding them than anything else. Today, it is difficult to see what the problem is but at the time of writing them, they were considered by some to be obscene, with Lawrence involved in several widely publicized censorship cases. At the base of the problem is the sensuality that Lawrence wrote with.

One of the key ideas of Lawrence that we see reflected in his work is his belief that the society of the time was dehumanized, emphasizing intellectual attributes but not natural or physical instincts. He believed that society would soon become more aware and recognize itself as being a part of nature, including accepting the need for sexual fulfillment. (Columbia)

This idea was incorporated into some of his best-known work, including Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), Sons and Lovers (1913) and many of his poems.

While it is difficult to define such a broad writer, he is known for his inclusion of nature, for his honesty and realism and for the sensitivity he brings to his works.

Snake

Snake was published in the poetry collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers. (1923) This poem deals with the idea of nature and how man interacts with nature. It also deals with the conflict man has in combining himself with nature. In the poem, Lawrence goes to the water trough in his pyjamas, but finds a snake there. He waits for the snake to go but the snake confronts him. Here we see his struggle with nature, "the voice of my education said to me he must be killed" and "but I must confess how I liked him."

Not only does Lawrence speak of this indecision, he also acts with this indecision, where at first he reacts by waiting and admiring the creature and then throws a log at him.

In the poem we see him struggle with his reaction, questioning whether his feelings toward the snake are natural, "was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him? Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him? Was it humility, to feel so honoured?"

His natural reaction to the snake is to admire it, to see it as a creature of nature. He fights his 'educated' mind which tells him to kill it.

His 'educated' mind refers less to scholarly education and more to society. 'Education' is what humans are that other animals are not. In the end of the poem, he wonders why himself as an educated man is in fact less important than the snake, referring to the snake as an "uncrowned king" and a "lord" and himself as petty. One of the points here is that while men crown themselves as the kings of the animal world, they really are not. The snake is in touch with nature as who it is and needs no crown, nor education.

Lawrence also makes this same point in an essay, saying "For a serpent is a thing created. It has its own raison d'etre. In its own being it has beauty and reality. Even my horror is a tribute to its reality." (Sagar, 236)

It is also important to note that we gain a sense of the snake being in touch with nature. Where the snake appears the poem slows, with the rhythm and the language having an enchanting quality. In the parts were he is watching the snake there is a repeat of soft sounds, especially the's and the 'm' sound. Consider the sections, "mused a moment" and "strange-scented shade."

After the snake leaves the language becomes harsher, the alliteration is not continued and there is less rhythm. Just as Lawrence tells us he has missed a moment, the reader also gets a sense that something magical has passed.

The Mystic Blue

The Mystic Blue is a poem about death and was written while Lawrence was grieving the loss of his mother. The poem has a staggered quality to it, reflected in it you can see that the mind of the poet is not quite right. Consider the line, "to sight, revealing a secret, numberless secrets keeping." The double use of the word secret and the combination of words makes it appear awkward. While at first, this poem may seem like one badly written, we can look at it again and realize that it was written by a grieving mind. The lack of reasoned thought present while one is in grief is captured in the poem.

The other noticeable thing in the poem is the repeat of the word 'blue.' Lawrence often used the color blue to represent grief. Of the five verses the word 'blue' appears in all except the last, and in the third twice. The poem also has a dreamlike quality with a combination of positive and negative words together. For the negative we have "darkness," "fretted," "rocking," "surge" and "shaken." All these words suggest some change, some upheaval. The positive words we mainly see in the end of the poem and include "pure," "dazzle," "joyous," "arching" and "wonder."

So we see in the language we have groups of words that also suggest contradiction and chaos. At the same time the poem is not either positive or negative, it seems more a combination of both. What we have represented is the upheaval and awkwardness of dealing with grief.

Green

Green was published in the Look! We Have Come Through. (1917) This was at the start of Lawrence's relationship with Frieda, who later became his wife. This poem is filled with a light-hearted hope that is not common to Lawrence's poem. It represents the way he felt at that time in his life, how his love for Frieda freed him from his problems. The first line, "the dawn was apple-green" represents a change or a new awakening. Firstly by the word dawn, and secondly by apple-green. The apple is a reminder of the Garden of Eden, which represents both longing and happiness. In the second part we realize that the green dawn he is speaking of is the opening of her green eyes. The whole poem has an easy childlike rhyme to it. As well as that the images are childlike, 'the sky was green wine.' This represents the innocence and happiness he was feeling.

Only Man

Only Man was published after Lawrence's death in Last Poems. (1932)

This poems returns to the man vs. animal theme similar to what was seen in Snake. The poem begins, "Only man can fall from God. Only man." He continues by comparing man to animal. He represents each animal with how man would see it's poor qualities, such as "beast," "creeping thing," and "hideous white ant."

The irony is that these negative qualities really aren't negative. It is man with the negative qualities because only man can fall from God.

The irony within the poem is that man falls from God because of his need to find out about himself, this idea is represented in the lines saying, "for the knowledge of the self-apart-from God is an abyss down which the soul can slip."

So as man tries to understand himself more, he actually moves further and further from the truth. This gradual move away from the truth is further enforced by the repitition in the poem. The reader gets a sense of falling, falling from grace. The animals however, no matter how hideous they are described as cannot "slip entirely through the fingers of the hands of god."

The question that Lawrence once again raises is for what purpose does society continue on its path away from nature. It is also a mark of Lawrence's struggle to define himself not just as an individual but as a part of society, something he has described saying, "one is not only a little individual living a little individual life, but that is in oneself the whole of mankind, and ones fate is the whole of mankind, and ones charge is the whole of mankind" (Boulton II, 302).