‘The Incarnate Now’: D.H. Lawrence, the New York School, and the Poetry of the Present and 'Things to Come'

Bagnall, Rowland John Caspar (2024). ‘The Incarnate Now’: D.H. Lawrence, the New York School, and the Poetry of the Present and 'Things to Come'. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis consists of a critical study, “The Incarnate Now’: D. H. Lawrence, the New York School, and the Poetry of the Present’, followed by a collection of poetry, Things to Come. The critical study explores the legacy of D. H. Lawrence’s thinking about American poetry and the poetics of the present moment on the writing of the postwar period. Chapter I places Lawrence’s interest in America in context, introducing connections between his writing and the work of Walter Pater, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson; the chapter examines Lawrence’s own poetry in detail, drawing particularly on an important essay, ‘The Poetry of the Present’. Chapter II explores the significance of spontaneity and the present moment in postwar American poetry, outlining the emergence of a new set of cultural and aesthetic priorities and offering detailed readings (chiefly) of the poetry of Frank O’Hara and James Schuyler. Chapter III turns to the writing of John Ashbery, presenting a detailed examination of his poetry and its fulfillment of the ideas outlined in the previous chapters, focusing in particular on the poet’s temporal experiments and their impacts on the poem/reader. Overall, this study aims to emphasise the value of D. H. Lawrence to the poets of the New York School, offering his thinking as a new way to appreciate their various accomplishments.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):