David Herbert Lawrence, an English novelist and poet ranked among the most influential and controversial literary figures of the twentieth century. Lawrence was born on September 11th, 1885, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He abandoned traditional poetic form and advocated the use of free verse. The two poems being discussed, "Bavarian Gentians" and "Ship of Death" were both written near the time of Lawrence's death. He had been suffering from tuberculosis. He is well aware that he is …showed first 75 words of 1527 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1527 total…a "deepening black darkening" work of art that combines an intense, painful subjectivity and a mastery of objective form, the absolute conclusion of Lawrence's autobiographical work "The Ship of Death" and "Bavarian Gentians," belong to a consciousness that has transcended the dualism of tragedy. The split has not been healed, it has simply been transcended; nearing death, Lawrence turns instinctively to the allegorical mode, the most primitive and the most sophisticated of all visionary expressions.