- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (29 Mar 1973)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140421440
- ISBN-13: 978-0140421446
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 913,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Product Description
Lawrence wrote nearly 1,000 poems during a short lifetime in which he was also astonishingly prolific in other spheres - fiction, travel writing, essays, criticism, letters and plays. Lawrence was not simply a novelist who dabbled in other forms. His characteristic vision informed everything he wrote, especially his poetry. At three important phases of his life, it became the primary channel of his experience and creative energy - the first year of his relationship with Frieda, the two years in Sicily, and the last year of his life. Bringing together the best of his poetry, this volume demonstrates that 'Lawrence is a great poet in every sense including the technical - the form is the perfect incarnation of the content, the perfect vehicle for the liveliness of thought and feeling, the freshness, and depth of perception, the wit and wisdom he has to offer.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
The quick sparks on the gorse bushes are leaping, Little jets of sunlight-texture imitating flame; Above them, exultant, the peewits are sweeping: They are lords of the desolate wastes of sadness their screamings proclaim. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The quick sparks on the gorse bushes are leaping, Little jets of sunlight-texture imitating flame; Above them, exultant, the peewits are sweeping: They are lords of the desolate wastes of sadness their screamings proclaim. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
My starring of this book is unashamedly partial, becuase I love Lawrence's writing. If you have felt the same when reading Lawrence's novels or stories, I'd recommend his poems. They reveal the same alert, intellegent, wilful, uncontainable, passionate, alive life as the rest of his work.
Lawrence is most anthologised as a nature poet, and some of his poems in this genre are among his finest poems (e.g. 'Snake'). But he also wrote a number of excellent (and, by the bye, pioneering) dialect poems that were admired greatly by Ezra Pound. Lawrence's poems are as thought-ridden as the rest of his work: indeed some of his poems, the _Pansies_, are epigrams, each containing a thought, often satirical. I find these brightly-coloured bursts of life refreshing and undogmatic (which Lawrence's essays sometimes aren't). He also wrote love poems, which haters of Lawrence are sure to find gushing and disgusing.
This is a good selection, with poems from all periods of Lawrence's life. All the poems are included in their first-published versions (Lawrence revised many of his poems heavily for his _Collected Poems_). It contains both earlier and later versions of two important poems, 'Bavarian Gentians' and 'The Ship of Death'.
Format:Paperback
Poetry and author are amazing, really special collection to have. But the book they advertise with Picture and 'LOOK INSIDE' is NOT the One I received... Best poems such as 'Self-Pity' are missing in the one I received, so there must be two different versions and that is obviously not made clear :(
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Liveliness of Thought and Feeling.
16 Dec 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Lawrence wrote nearly 1,000 poems during a short lifetime in which he was also astonishingly prolific in other spheres--fiction, travel writing, essays, criticism, letters and plays. Lawrence was not simply a novelist who dabbled in other forms. His characteristic vision informed everything he wrote, especially his poetry. At three important phases of his life it became the primary channel of his experience and creative energy--the first year of his relationship with Frieda, the two years in Sicily, and the last year of his life. Bringing together the best of his poetry, this volume demonstrates that 'Lawrence is a great poet in every sense including the technical ... The form is the perfect incarnation of the content, the perfect vehicle for the liveliness of thought and feeling, the freshness, and depth of perception, the wit and wisdom he has to offer.' Superb. Without hesitation or reservation, five stars.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
"...too prosaic to be the greatest poetry ?"
15 Dec 2009
That's the question asked by a previous reviewer, one of only three.
Suppose I offer you a poem and let you decide for yourslves:
HUMMING-BIRD
I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Before anything had a soul.
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow vast succulent stems.
I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.
Probably he was big
As mosses and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.
[I've chosen that poem because it's short enough to type in an ammy review. Lawrence's best poems, IMHO, are in his collection called Birds, Beast, and Flowers.]
Suppose I offer you a poem and let you decide for yourslves:
HUMMING-BIRD
I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Before anything had a soul.
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow vast succulent stems.
I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.
Probably he was big
As mosses and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.
[I've chosen that poem because it's short enough to type in an ammy review. Lawrence's best poems, IMHO, are in his collection called Birds, Beast, and Flowers.]
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A wonderful collection
22 May 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Sagar states in the introduction of this selection of D.H. Lawrence's poetry, "We have come to think of his poetry as something of a by-product of, or relaxation from, other more strenuous and important work". There is no doubt it was to an extent, however, what is clear is that he took it just as seriously as his other artistic pursuits. Casual readers of Lawrence may be surprised to learn that he wrote around 1000 poems in his 45-years. His poetry runs in near-parallel themes to his novels - for example, "Sons and Lovers" character Miriam was inspired by the muse of "Love Poems", Lawrence's' then sweetheart Jessie Chambers. "Sons and Lovers" focused upon the cruelty of love - platonic, romantic, and parental. Lawrence's poems from his "Love Poems" collection, "Cruelty and Love" and "Snap-Dragon" capture the same theme, albeit far more personally.
In this collection we see Lawrence's poetic skills evolve - from young rebel to world-weary mystic. It's his ability to capture emotion so clearly and concisely which is Lawrence's greatest skill. What also shines through in his poetry is a sense of playfulness - take "The Mosquito" as a case example:
"It is your trump,
It is your hateful little trump,
You pointed fiend,
Which shakes my sudden blood to hatred of you:
It is your small, high, hateful bugle in my ear."
The poem is altogether hilarious, depicting Lawrence as a hunter of the tiny yet vicious bug, who evades his every attempt to squash it until he finally, after much effort, succeeds. Much more than this, however, it demonstrates Lawrence's uncanny ability to capture the essence of nature and its creatures, best evidenced in "Snake".
Lawrence's poems are all full of energy and spirit, technically adept, and yet not limited by form. Admittedly some of his work is too personal, leaving the reader alienated, but his successful poetry (mostly presented in this collection) transcends time and culture.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
