In the following essay, Roberts focuses on D. H. Lawrence's long poem sequences in a discussion of his poetry in relation to Imagism and the development of modern English poetry.

SOURCE: "Lawrence, Imagism and Beyond," in British Poetry, 1900-50: Aspects of Tradition, edited by Gary Day and Brian Docherty, St. Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 81-93.

The importance of Lawrence's association with the Imagist movement—which meant for him, above all, the personality and poetic example of H.D.—tends to be under-estimated, probably because of a stereotyped idea of the Imagist poem as something small, static and precious. If, however, we think not of set-pieces like 'In the Station of the Metro' but of what Imagism made possible, of what the major Imagists went on to do, Lawrence's association with them seems less incongruous.

What the most important of the Imagists—Pound and H.D.—went on to do...