Acts of Attention: The Poems of D. H. Lawrence

Abstract

In the Preface to this second edition of her first book, Sandra M. Gilbert addresses the inevitable question: How can you be a feminist a Lawrentian? answer is intellectually satisfying historically revealing as she traces an array of early twentieth-century women of letters, some of them proto-feminists, who revered Lawrence despite countless statements that would today be condemned as sexist.H.D. regarded him as one of her initiators whose words flamed alive, blue serpents on the page. AnaisNin insisted that he had a complete realization of the feelings of women.By focusing on Lawrence s own definition of a poem as an act of attention, Gilbert demonstrates how he developed the mature style of Birds, Beasts Flowers, his finest collection of She discusses this volume at length, examines many of later poems in detail, including the hymns from The Plumed Serpent, Pansies, Nettles, and More Pansies, and ends with a close look at Last Poems. Her detailed examination provides a clearer image of Lawrence as an artist an artist whose poetry complements novels whose fiction enriches but does not outshine poetry.