Lawrence

I think that the biggest thing I appreciated this past week was not having to read hundreds of footnotes! Though I started to enjoy Eliot over the past week, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief over Lawrence’s simplicity.

One of my favorite Lawrence poems was, “The Enkindled Spring.” I’m not sure I totally understood what Lawrence was trying to say, but I loved the way he juxtaposed a lush green forest with fire imagery. Though the two images are completely opposite of one another, it works. “This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green” (327, 1). The spring, like a bonfire, suddenly bursts up out of nowhere, giving us vivid and beautiful colors.

I also really loved “Snake.” It was so simple and easy to understand, but gave me some beautiful images. “Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently” (333, 12-13). The idea that the individual in the poem was torn between his wanting to “be a man” and his complete awe over the snake’s beauty was an interesting concept.

Though Lawrence does focus on nature and animals in a similar to many Romantic writers, for me, he was a lot different. Generally speaking, I don’t enjoy “nature writing.” Descriptions of trees, bird, etc. tend to bore me unless there is something kind of different about them. I had to read Thoreau over the summer and I still don’t think I’ve recovered. J Lawrence always adds a little something different to his descriptions, something that makes them unusual (i.e. firely trees, fornicating turtles, etc.) and I think that is why I like him.