Images of Life and Death in Bavarian Gentians Essay -- Bavarian Gentia

Images of Life and Death in Bavarian Gentians As the last few days of summer fade away, and Septembers block off brings promises of a cold, sad autumn, the feast of Michaelmas has come and g nonpareil, and one butt end not help but be reminded of D. H. Lawrences Bavarian Gentians, a poem that commences by reminiscing of the sad days at the end of September, when summer has finally go along with its intoxicating and life-giving breath. Like the days that separate summer from autumn, Lawrences poem, one of his last, is a sad and dreamy read. It seduces audiences with its slow dance with mordant end. It speaks to students with its melancholic passion. It breathes life into the last days before death. A death that comes from tuberculosis is never sudden. The disease progresses slowly until it gradually overcomes its victim, who must contain with a tragic patience for that final moment. At the end of The prank Mountain, Thomas Mann speaks parting words to his protagonist that sp eak for the ravages of TB and its nearly inevitable force, The wicked dance in which you are caught up provide last many a sinful year yet, and we would not post much that you will come out whole. As a longtime(prenominal) sufferer of TB, Lawrence too was caught up in a wicked dance, one that must have caused him, identical the speaker in the poem, to feel like he was guiding himself ...with the blue, forked torch of this flower / down the darker and darker stairs... until he finally reached his destination, the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon dark. The poem itself is a complex web, a trance like dream that suggests both a gravitation toward death and a transcendence beyond it. The speaker speaks of the halls of Dis and of travelling down where ... ...Chapter 7 Prosperine - Glaucus and Scylla. Oct. 2001. http//www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull7.html Ferris, T. Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence. Oct. 2001. http//home.earthlink.net/rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm Lawrence, cable length 16. Lawrence lines 17-18. Lawrence, line 14, line 2. Lawrence, line 13. Lawrence, line 11. This portion of the later version, along with the second stanza, tush be found at Ferris, T. Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence. Oct. 2001. http//home.earthlink.net/rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm. The complete poem, however, can not be found there. Ferris, T. Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence. Oct. 2001. http//home.earthlink.net/rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm. Ferris, T. Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence. Oct. 2001. http//home.earthlink.net/rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.