D. H. Lawrence’s Aesthetics in Selected Poems of Birds, Beasts and Flowers

D. H. Lawrence shows an overwhelming interest in the relationship between man, nature and time. As this relationship requires a comprehending interaction with entities that are distinctive, some of Lawrence’s poems discuss notions of being and time, which reflects his affinities with Martin Heidegger, who extensively discusses enriching ideas on humanity and existence. One of the things that distinguishes Heidegger from other philosophers is his coinage of his own philosophic language and terminology, and his abandonment of traditional methods of thinking, so he created the term Dasein, which refers to the consciousness of being-in-the-world, and being-in-the-world in consciousness at the same time. All Heidegger’s terms represent his attempts to explain ‘presence’ wherein da refers to the place (being here or being there); hence, it also entails the concept of time. Lawrence, too, was preoccupied by the existence of man within the universe and his relationship with it. In Birds, Beasts and Flowers, Lawrence manipulates the sense of movement to demonstrate this relationship which he sees as both harmonious and essential, and this reflects the influence of the philosophy of Vitalism on his thought. The aim of this paper is to show how the poems’ style is not only aesthetic but also philosophical as they depict Lawrence’s concern with the question of existence and the interpretation of life. The poems manifest Lawrence’s deep understanding of time as he creates for both man and other living things their own temporal spaces in which they move separately.  The study will attempt to show how he shatters the passive contemplation to become part of the ‘being’ he is studying.