When I first started reading Lawrence's poetry I was not impressed. My first thought was, "Oh great, more 'I-love-her-but-can't-have-her-boo-hoo' crap." Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this kind of poetry, but there's so much of it out there it gets old after a while.
As I continued to read his poetry, however, it got better and I was more impressed. He has some very deep reflections on certain aspects of nature and life, which I find quite interesting. I especially liked "Piano"--I thought it was a very poignant reflection on the fleetingness of life and loss of youth, told from the perspective of someone having a flashback from their childhood.
I also loved "Medlars and Sorb-Apples", "Snake", and "Lui et Elle". Although it's hard to see what exactly he's saying in some of them, it's great how he can make such a beautiful reflection on such simple topics--fruit, a snake, and two tortoises, respectively. Most people see these things simply as objects, but Lawrence uses them to make parallels to real life--for example, seeing a female and male tortoise swimming side-by-side reminds him of human relationships.
"The English are So Nice!" was a good laugh--although it appeared at first to be a sappy tribute to the English, it turned out to be a clever, sly dig at them. I love this kind of satire.
"The Ship of Death" was by far my favorite. It reminded me very much of "Thanatopsis," being a reflection on the fundamental meaning of the cycle of life.
Overall, I saw Lawrence's poetry as a reflection of the cycle of life--his early poetry dealt with unrequited love, a common trouble of youth; his later poetry was more mature and meaningful, and his final poem dealt appropriately with death, the final stage of life.
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