SOURCE: "D. H. Lawrence's Philosophy as Expressed in His Poetry," in The Rice Institute Pamphlet, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, July, 1951, pp. 73-94.

In the following essay, Williams proposes that the body of Lawrence 's poetical works must be read in order to give a full understanding of the author's philosophical and sociological intent.

I. a Neglected Poetry

Books by D. H. Lawrence would fill a good-sized shelf, and books about him would fill an even larger shelf. Ten years after his death an editorial writer in the Saturday Review of Literature said that he has been the subject of "more books than any other writer since Byron";¹ and now, twenty years after his death, the same magazine remarks that "Lawrence's reputation is on the upswing . . . and in many countries he has 'become a standard author'."² A steady trickle of essays about him continues to appear in the popular as...