Lawrence Memorial Altar
This entry is a continuation of the previous entry. I wanted to include two stanzas from D. H. Lawrence's poem, "The Ship of Death" as a further illustration of the death-life-death concept. --Theresa
from THE SHIP OF DEATH
by D. H. Lawrence
I.
Now it is autumn and the falling fruit
and the long journey towards oblivion.
The apples falling like great drops of dew
to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.
And it is time to go, to bid farewell
to one's own self, and find an exit
from the fallen self.
...
V
Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death
that lies between the old self and the new.
Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.
Already the dark and endless ocean of the end
is washing in through the breaches of our wounds,
alreadythe flood is upon us.
Oh build your ship of death, your little ark
and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.
...
1 comment:
My dear Theresa, you could not have known this because I don't think I ever shared it with you, but I was obsessed with two writers in my late teens. One was Thomas Hardy. The other was D. H. Lawrence. Two men with similar themes in some ways. Lawrence died young - of tuberculosis, I believe, or of a similar lung complaint. He was sickly all his life and lived long with the nearness of death. The gentians (a beautiful rich purplish/blue bell-shaped flower) in his house at Michaelmas relate to his early death, I believe. He was, of course, a writer driven to describe the marriage of the physical and the mystical. (Who can forget the the wrestling match in front of the roaring fire between the two naked men in "Women in Love?") His view of the intellect almost getting in the way makes perfect sense when looked at from that point of view.
I love his description of the journey he was about to take - he is curious and optimistic at the same time: "And die the death, the long and painful death that lies between the old self and the new." Burrowing deep down within ourselves requires the surrender of the intellect to baser instincts, which he wrote about quite beautifully. Thank you for these provocative and profound thoughts, Theresa - once again, you have induced me to think.
Love, Vicky
http://www.livejournal.com/~vxv789/
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