Out of all of Lawrence's poems we had to read so far I find this one probably the most interesting one, and it's not necessarily because of some kind of profound philosophical message it invokes. Rather it's the symbolism with which Lawrence manages to describe the whole process of dying, death, and resurrection. The message isn't subtle at all as one becomes aware straight from the start that it's about dying (a breath of fresh air considering we had to deconstruct and dissect Eliot's writing for more than a week); but the analogy Lawrence gives of the lost ship is very instrumental.
The "ship of death," the way I read it, is--ironically-- a metaphor for life. Over and over the author affirms that it is heading towards "oblivion" (death) and even condemns suicide between lines 20-29 by contrasting "self-murder" or "break of exit" with the "journey(life) one must take into the oblivion. He also keeps stressing that we are falling into darkness and that we are decaying as the ship keeps moving on. The injunction that "we cannot steer" (line 63) the ship implies the inevitability of death.
The part where a resurrection is hinted at (and again, this is my reading) is when one emerges from the darkness he is "lovely" which stands in contrast to the decaying body that was heading towards its doom.
So although the process is pretty straight forward and obvious, it does spice it up when symbolism is added to the text.
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