D. H. Lawrence, Ship of Death

[Paulclem]

I like the Norse connectin too and then the link with Hamlet. Lawence populates the ship in an oddly familiar and domestic way with his lttle dishes. Is this a clinging, or longing for the familiar in his inevitable journey?

The other thing is that whatever tradition it reminds you of - biblical - Norse and in my case Egyptian,(though I think the Norse connection is much stronger), there is a distinct lack of God or Gods. Certainly he is alluding in his imagery to mythologial traditions, but where are the underlying population of deities? Does this reflect his uncertainty about the existence of God/s? Without God/s - death become a process - not a resurrection but a rebirth.

[Paulclem]

one feels that the poem is constantly remarking on the lack of time to "make quietus", and the failure to build the ship, to go peacefully, as nothing is set into order, and there is no time to "build a ship".


Yes - his exhortations reminded me of Donne.

The flood also seems apocalyptic too:

...and soon it will rise on the outside world.

Floods appear in two of his works that I can recall - The Virgin and the Gypsy and The Rainbow. Both bring death and cetainly n the Virgin and the Gypsy, transform the lives of those affected. The biblical image of the flood is the world remade, as he seems to be remade like a shell. The shell is something that ws animated by a living ceature that has now been scoured out. Lawrence's worries perhaps?

[Dark Muse]

The other thing is that whatever tradition it reminds you of - biblical - Norse and in my case Egyptian,(though I think the Norse connection is much stronger), there is a distinct lack of God or Gods. Certainly he is alluding in his imagery to mythologial traditions, but where are the underlying population of deities? Does this reflect his uncertainty about the existence of God/s? Without God/s - death become a process - not a resurrection but a rebirth.

Though various different mythologies are alluded to, certainly Biblical with a direct mention of the ark, and talk of flooding, and the Vikings which has been discussed, as well the constant repetition of oblivion makes me think of Greek and the River Lethe, I think that with the idea of building your own ship of death, that God(s) are removed from the equation, I do not think this is meant to be a truly religious or spiritual poem in spite of its subject and allusions, Lawrence did study various cultures and spiritualities and often draws from in his works upon those things, but I think this work is about man taking account of himself, it is about the "self" even in death, rather than looking to some other being or deity. Man is accountable unto himself and accountable for his own soul, so he must construct his own ship of death, and line it those things that matter to him, as it speaks of the domestics which will come with him on this journey of the unknown.

[Paulclem]

Man is accountable unto himself and accountable for his own soul, so he must construct his own ship of death, and line it those things that matter to him, as it speaks of the domestics which will come with him on this journey of the unknown.

Yet he clearly refers to a soul, which implies a deity, and he is remade or resurrected from oblivion. His vagueness about this may imply the peace that passes understanding.

with the richness of the imagery, I would say it is a spiritual poem, but Lawrence was a writer that faced up to his problems with life. I thnk he believed in an ineffable something from this poem, but he was too honest to go with a concpt he had struggled with. Otherwise he would believe in annihilation, which he clearly implies he does not. There is the peace at the end of the poem. It's like a death poem forthe nominal believers in a God idea - leaving the possibilities open, or refusing to label.

[Virgil]

I read this to some detail today and will definitely post my thoughts later tonight. No time right now. But looks like a good discussion.

[Janine]

Man is accountable unto himself and accountable for his own soul, so he must construct his own ship of death, and line it those things that matter to him, as it speaks of the domestics which will come with him on this journey of the unknown.

Yet he clearly refers to a soul, which implies a deity, and he is remade or resurrected from oblivion. His vagueness about this may imply the peace that passes understanding.

with the richness of the imagery, I would say it is a spiritual poem, but Lawrence was a writer that faced up to his problems with life. I thnk he believed in an ineffable something from this poem, but he was too honest to go with a concpt he had struggled with. Otherwise he would believe in annihilation, which he clearly implies he does not. There is the peace at the end of the poem. It's like a death poem forthe nominal believers in a God idea - leaving the possibilities open, or refusing to label.

I agree with this, because Lawrence was a highly religious thinking man; don't get me wrong, not in anyway conventionally speaking. He was not an athetist or agnostic; his writings do indicate that he did believe in something beyond this world or the hope of it. If I knew the exact date of this poem, it would be helpful. I just looked it up in his Complete Poems of D.H.Lawrence and it does fall towards the end; therefore, I would assume he was actually nearing his death, in the physical sense, at the time this poem was written. It was definitely much on his mind. The poem that follows in the collection is called Difficult Death. I wasn't able to locate it online; maybe someone else can. It follows this poem and probably sums it up to some degree; perhaps it goes further to answer the question as to how Lawrence was thinking and what he was believing at this time:

I just came across this great article by Joyce Carol Oats. Here is an excerpt on the poem we are currently discussing. It seems to be quite insightful and it states that indeed Lawrence wrote this poem contemplating his own death; it was written just prior to his death. I find the poem exceedingly sad and personal, but not without hope of an after-life, a new birth. Here is the article:

Most of the poems, of course, are just as Lawrence judged them in "Chaos in Poetry": suffused fragments, visions "passing into touch and sound, then again touch and the bursting of a bubble of an image." But the finest poems achieve triumphs of both content and form, and bear comparison with the greatest poems in our language. "The Ship of Death" is 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—one has only to imagine the Collected Poems without it to realize how terrible loss this would be. (More so than the loss of 'Under Ben Bulben," perhaps.) Here, at the end of his life, the very consciously dying poet composes a poem to get him through his death, just as, years before, he composed "New Heaven and Earth" in an attempt to express his mystical experience. Like the beautiful "Bavarian Gentians," "The Ship of Death" is a construction by way of the artistic imagination of the attitude one must take toward death—that is, toward dying, the active, existential process of dying. And here Lawrence is equal to the challenge, as he has been equal to the challenge of expressing the mysteries of life throughout his career. "The Ship of Death" is about a symbolic ship, but a small one; the images of death are terrible, final, but they are familiar and small as well:

Now it is autumn and the falling fruit
and the long journey towards oblivion.
The apples falling like great drops of dew
to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.
And it is time to go, to bid farewell
to one's own self, and find an exit
from the fallen self.

The "fallen self" builds its ship, its poem, to take it upon this journey into the unknown, into oblivion; it rejects once again the self-willed act of suicide: "for how could murder, even self-murder/ever a quietus make?" The symbol of the small ship is exactly right, it is exactly true to Lawrence's personality, for it is stocked with small, unpretentious items, a very human, humble vehicle:

Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,
upon the flood's black waste. . . .

(Just as Yeats declares as an accomplished fact his own death, and commands that his tombstone be made not of marble but of limestone quarried nearby.) But Lawrence's death journey ends at dawn, a "cruel dawn," out of which glows a mystical flush of rose, and there is some kind of renewal, "the whole thing starts again" as the frail soul abandons itself utterly to the Infinite: Lawrence's way of affirming again, and at a time in his life when he might be tempted to deny it, the absolute mystery of the Other, which cannot be guessed and cannot be absorbed into the human soul. It is a kind of sensuous stoicism, an intelligent paganism—if the "pagan" were to be joined with the artistic soul in having the consciousness required for the exertion of this will, this building of the individual's way into oblivion.

I know that later in his life he visited the Etruscan tombs, which greatly impressed him, playing into his own belief system. The tomb drawing are explicitly and beautifully described in his book on the subject; you might want to check that book out; it's a great and fascinating read. He saw the experience, not as a mere observer or anthropologist, but in a very spiritual sense. Lawrence was always looking for some form of God, a reinvented god or often his own mention of the Holy Spirit. He was very altering in his views about this from novel to novel. At the time he wrote The Plumed Serpent he shed off the God of the Catholic or Christian church, sending him back to his thrown in heaven, in order to bring back and re-establish the old gods in Mexico; ritual was a huge element in the book. Then later, he looked to the Etruscan's for an answer to religion/belief. Lawrence perhaps accepted some aspects of the Etrucan's who believed a little boat would convey one to the afterlife. His description of the provisions in this poem remind me of two things - one is the little bag filled with basics for survival, that he and his wife carted along on all their adventures/travels and the second is related more clearly to the drawings in the Etruscan tombs. He was highly interested in the fact, that the Etruscan society had vanished and yet their religious ideas were documented so clearly within the tombs. I am not sure I am explaining this correctly; it is best to read the book and see how Lawrence perceived it through his eyes. I am just trying to say he went through many stages of belief in his lifetime, transforming or exploring different possibilites of the here-after each time. He explored the old Gods, the total mystery of a supreme being, the pagan rituals, the Gods of the earth, and perhaps he returned in some form to a more Biblical connection to his God by the end of his life or perhaps it was the Gods of the Etruscan's. If you read his final poems, you can see some of that quality of returning to his early root beliefs and his past. It would take a lifetime to really know exactly what Lawrence's final conclusion on the concept of eternity or God was, by the early end of his life, at the age of only 45. In fact, I just looked it up and Etrucan's Places was published two years after his death.

[Dark Muse]

Yet he clearly refers to a soul, which implies a deity, and he is remade or resurrected from oblivion. His vagueness about this may imply the peace that passes understanding.

I do not think that soul has to equal deity, at least not in the sense of "God" I think the concept of soul can exist without there needing to be an external God, and I think this poem is more reflectively internal.

with the richness of the imagery, I would say it is a spiritual poem, but Lawrence was a writer that faced up to his problems with life. I thnk he believed in an ineffable something from this poem, but he was too honest to go with a concpt he had struggled with. Otherwise he would believe in annihilation, which he clearly implies he does not. There is the peace at the end of the poem. It's like a death poem forthe nominal believers in a God idea - leaving the possibilities open, or refusing to label.

The poem may be spiritual but I am not convinced that God is meant to play a role within the work, as he turned the poem inward, upon man himself, I do not think the figure in this poem is truly seeking a God, even if one might see suggestions of an afterlife in the works. But then while Lawrence was a spiritual person I think the use of the word oblivion here can be seen as similar to annihilation.

As it has been briefly touched upon before this poem does contradict itself in some ways when reflection upon death, and what may await afterwards. For oblivion does not truly suggest an afterlife, and yet the figure in the poem does prepare from some sort of journey, and surrounds himself with material comforts. But I think the poem is questioning, perhaps preparing for all possibilities, be it an afterlife, or just a great nothingness.

Even if the poem is spiritual I do not see God having a role in it.

[Paulclem]

I thought the boat emerging from oblivion was a bit like the creation story with the water separating form the sky. Perhaps a kind of personal creation story.

I am not convinced that God is meant to play a role within the work

The God/ Gods etc just seem so absent from the poem when it is richly endowed with such imagery associatd with deities.

There is perhaps the desire to retain control through the death proces. I agree with JBI's idea that he hadn't completed his own ship- he is unprepard for death but seems to be struggling with letting go. He is trying to be in control - building the boat, furnishing it with domestic items, and then guiding it. At some point there is the acknowledgement of a relinquishing of control, but he can't seem to exhort a God/s which is what a conventional believer would do. He can't give up the possibility of hope though - the vague peace at the end.

Great tension, and it seems to relate to a very real experience of approaching death for someone who confronted life in writing.

[Virgil]

I have to take back a lot of what I said. I read the whole poem and now I have a totally different interpretation. I withdraw from here and I apologize.

I went to a library. The complete collection of his poems has two other versions of the poem in appendix, one of which is shorter.

The shorter version has repetitions of "build your ship (Noah's Ark in my opinion), nothing matters, to prepare your longest journey to oblivion (heaven and complete peace), instead of not quietus (not death but hell) where you will wail in agony." What is in the quote is my impression from the shorter version.

I think I prefer my first and second impressions, instead of the last one.

Let me join the conversation by stating what I know about the various versions. First this is part of Lawrence's last batch of work before he died, and for those that don't know he had tuberculosis and he knew he didn't have much longer to live. Lawrence died in early February of 1930 and this was probably written within his last year. Many of those poems of the last year are on the subject of death, and in particular his death. His obssesion with death probably goes back a year or so before that, say 1927/8 where while living in Italy was fascinated with the recently discovered tombs of the Etruscans, and which he wrote a number of essays. Lawrence had been obssessed with primitive cultures at least going back to his novel Women In Love, written during WWI, but published after.

There are three established versions of "The Ship of Death," and the complete poems (I assume this is where you looked Jin) has all three. But the version that we are looking at is the version that was included in Last Poems, published posthuously in 1932. I think it was the correct one to select. It is certainly more polished than the others, and this version is the only one that separates sections into numbered stanzas.

Of the other two version, like Jin says, one is much shorter and the other much longer. On my initial read, the shorter version seems like a germ for the poem and and the longer version seems like a free wielding exercise to expand.

Many of the late poems are in two drafts, a MS "A" and MS "B" version. According to the editor of Late Poems, Richard Aldington, Lawrence used MS "B" as an initial draft book, and then re-wrote it in MS "A" as a more final version. This isn't a hundred percent the case, but it appears to be the case for most of the beginning parts of the MMS until the end when Lawrence was just too ill to really be disciplined. In the case of "The Ship of Death," there are actually three versions, and the version we have at hand that was published was a typed stand alone version that must have been a further editing of the MS "A" version. Apparently Lawrence had felt this was a more special poem with greater promise. MS "A" version is the longer version.

Hope that was informative.

[Janine]

Let me join the conversation by stating what I know about the various versions. First this is part of Lawrence's last batch of work before he died, and for those that don't know he had tuberculosis and he knew he didn't have much longer to live. Lawrence died in early February of 1930 and this was probably written within his last year. Many of those poems of the last year are on the subject of death, and in particular his death. His obssesion with death probably goes back a year or so before that, say 1927/8 where while living in Italy was fascinated with the recently discovered tombs of the Etruscans, and which he wrote a number of essays. Lawrence had been obssessed with primitive cultures at least going back to his novel Women In Love, written during WWI, but published after.

There are three established versions of "The Ship of Death," and the complete poems (I assume this is where you looked Jin) has all three. But the version that we are looking at is the version that was included in Last Poems, published posthuously in 1932. I think it was the correct one to select. It is certainly more polished than the others, and this version is the only one that separates sections into numbered stanzas.

Of the other two version, like Jin says, one is much shorter and the other much longer. On my initial read, the shorter version seems like a germ for the poem and and the longer version seems like a free wielding exercise to expand.

Many of the late poems are in two drafts, a MS "A" and MS "B" version. According to the editor of Late Poems, Richard Aldington, Lawrence used MS "B" as an initial draft book, and then re-wrote it in MS "A" as a more final version. This isn't a hundred percent the case, but it appears to be the case for most of the beginning parts of the MMS until the end when Lawrence was just too ill to really be disciplined. In the case of "The Ship of Death," there are actually three versions, and the version we have at hand that was published was a typed stand alone version that must have been a further editing of the MS "A" version. Apparently Lawrence had felt this was a more special poem with greater promise. MS "A" version is the longer version.

Hope that was informative.

Definitely informative, Virgil. Thanks. I have been waiting for you to show up and comment. Did you read the research I dug up; an essay by Joyce Carol Oats, in my last post on this page? I found the entire essay online and copied it to my offline program; I will read the remainder later - looks interesting, insightful and addresses other aspects of L's work. I was glad to find this particular reference to this poem within the articles. I keep stressing that fact, that Lawrence had gone to the Etruscan tombs late in his life and then written his travel book on the same subject, of which he became fascinated. Right, it was published posthumously, as was this poem. That trip with his friend had a definite effect on this poem and it's imagery, such as the little boat supplied with some very basic provisions for the after-life. Also, just the way Lawrence describes those provisions is somewhat funny or curious to me; one could compare this to his account of his packed bag - think he referred to it as his 'kichenette' (will look that up when I find my book; it is mentioned in the very beginning), as he set off with Frieda's on an adventure to the island chronicalized in his novel Sea and Sardinia

[Virgil]

Definitely informative, Virgil. Thanks. I have been waiting for you to show up and comment. Did you read the research I dug up; an essay by Joyce Carol Oats, in my last post on this page? I found the entire essay online and copied it to my offline program; I will read the remainder later - looks interesting, insightful and addresses other aspects of L's work. I was glad to find this particular reference to this poem within the articles. I keep stressing that fact, that Lawrence had gone to the Etruscan tombs late in his life and then written his travel book on the same subject, of which he became fascinated. Right, it was published posthumously, as was this poem. That trip with his friend had a definite effect on this poem and it's imagery, such as the little boat supplied with some very basic provisions for the after-life. Also, just the way Lawrence describes those provisions is somewhat funny or curious to me; one could compare this to his account of his packed bag - think he referred to it as his 'kichenette' (will look that up when I find my book; it is mentioned in the very beginning), as he set off with Frieda's on an adventure to the island chronicalized in his novel Sea and Sardinia

I had not at the time I posted. I had not caught up, but now I have and Oates is right on in her understanding of the poem. I think you explained Lawrence's interest in Etruscan tombs but i don't find this poem incorporates anything Etruscan. As far as I can tell. I'm going to go back and respond to as many as I can.

[Virgil]

Have you built your ship of death, O have you?
O build your ship of death, for you will need it.

The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall
thick, almost thundrous, on the hardened earth.


That to me seems a tad ironic - have you built your ship of death, you will need it - as if in death you will need such a ship, to get past anything into the abyss. Anyone think the apples though are a reference to Frost's After Apple Picking, or is that just too big a stretch?

Quite possible. My thought was Keat's "To Autumn" where there is an image of ripe apples. I think apples in general are associated with autumn and that associates them with upcoming death. It's hard to say whether Lawrence has either poem in mind or just tapping into a general association.

The ship, ironically, seems to dominate as a romantic image, but the irony falls on the state of the poet himself, I would argue, dying before his time in a sort of unfulfillment - I am told that his letters from this period betray a sort of pessimistic view on his life as sort of wasted, and on the futility of literature as a means to existence.

I think I fleshed out his bio of the time above. Yes, he knew he was dying when he wrote this.

It does not seem to me that the death here is our physical death but rather our mind death, a transition to a different world because you become a new person. A long and painful struggle to shed a rotten old self to become a fresh new self. I remember seeing fallen apples in autumn, they are mostly rotten.

I do think it's a physical death, but other than that I think you nail the central core of the poem. It's a poem of becoming, from a current state (bruised dying life) to a new self, the new state of the after life and the painful struggle to it.

[Virgil]

Also, what do you guys make of the Hamlet reference - in the Quietus, to Hamlet:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin .

Are we to take this as somewhat of an answer to it, or a building upon it - I know Lawrence, for instance, hated the Prince, but the reference isn't dismissible - The Prince too is brought to a premature death, but the point of the poem is that he is fulfilled in the end, by defeating Claudius, and restoring order to Denmark. The bare Bobkin quietus though implies a sort of old age, and a readiness to slowly pass peacefully away - there is no peace in this poem though, there is no preparation, one feels that the poem is constantly remarking on the lack of time to "make quietus", and the failure to build the ship, to go peacefully, as nothing is set into order, and there is no time to "build a ship".

Now that is a very interesting thought. I could not piece in how the bodkin fit. I don't think I've ever seen anywhere Lawrence not liking Hamlet, but you know it fits. Hamlet is the anti-Lawrence. Hamlet is a person obssessed with rational thought and intellectually understanding of the world where Lawrence is the anti-intellectual, the person who trusts his emotions (blood knowledge, as Lawrence calls it versus mental knowledge) and intuitions. Hamlet is mental knowledge personified and cannot trust his intuition. Stanza III rejects Hamletesk intellectualization of taking his own life. Lawrence will trust this ship of death to carry his end, not suicide.

[Virgil]

What is not to love about this poem? It is right up my alley. Absolutely gorgeous! This might be my favorite thing Lawrence rote EVER! Including novels and short stories. It is so laden with such deep rich imagery, and I think that it also draws from myth a great deal as well in so much of the symbolism which is alluded to within this poem.

Glad you liked it. It is a fine poem.

First of all on reading this the first and most prominent thing which had come into my mind was the Vikings, throughout the poem I think Norse Lore was strongly drawn upon. The metaphor of the "ship of death" was something that the Vikings literally did. Upon the death of a Viking, an actual ship was constructed in which the corpse of the dead was placed and then sent out to sea and the ships would be lain with relics of the material living world in the same way in which the poem speaks of placing food, wine, and clothing upon the ship of death.

The mention of ash within poem and alluding to fumes, also suggests the old Viking tradition.

I would agree with everyone that said that the ship alludes to the Viking tradition. Vikings did send their dead off in a boat in flames. And Lawrence would have known that and i can swear he used the same allusion elsewhere.

Also do not forget the greek underworld ferrying of the dead, which is also in Dante's Inferno. There is an element of that too.

However, do not negate the use of bliblical imagery. The ark of Noah is also critical here and so is the flood that is alluded. The biblical flood is a wiping out of life for a new man; the family of Noah becomes the new humanity and is granted a new covenant (relationship) with God. While the use of the Viking image of a ship and the Greek ferrying means of writing the poem, I don't think they really amplify the themes. I think the biblical suggestion is more integral with the poem's themes.

[Virgil]

The Tennyson/Ulysses link is especially intriguing. Certainly Lawrence does suggest a similar frustration... disgust with his deteriorating/dying body.

The tennyson poem that echoes the most for me is Tennyson's last poem he wrote before he died:

Crossing The Bar
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.