Studying the two poems "Beautiful Old Age" and "Winters Tale" I am going to comment on D H Lawrence's attitude to old age and Death.

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Poetry Essay

  In this essay I am going to be looking at two poems by the late D.H Lawrence.  Although an accomplished poet,  Lawrence is sometimes said to have a cynical and negative outlook on things,  this is evident in the poems that he wrote.  By studying the two poems “Beautiful Old Age” and “Winters Tale”  I am going to comment on D H Lawrence’s attitude to old age and Death.  

 The First verse of the poem “Beautiful old age”, is potentially quite a positive out look but, almost instantly there is a negative shadow cast upon it. Lawrence has added the word ought. “ It ought to be lovely to be old” but it isn’t is what the poem says in not so many words. The word “ought” says,  it should be this but it’s not. This changes the readers out look on the poem straight away and it shows Lawrence’s cynicism. This first line sets the mood for the rest of the poem.  The words “peace” and “fulfilment” in the last two lines of the verse suggest that Lawrence thinks that you should be satisfied with old age but he, is bitter because he’s not going to make it and he’ll never know what it is like to be old.

 The first part of the second verse gives the reader the impression that Lawrence has had a  hard life and to some extent is quite bitter about it. In the middle part he is saying that people take so much rubbish on board in their lives that it becomes a kind of twisted normality, Whereas if they didn’t take so much rubbish and accept so many lies then “they would ripen like apples, and be scented like pippins in their old age”. This shows that Lawrence doesn’t like the way that things happen and the way people are, he thinks that if people grew old without bad memories and without false truths, then they would be able to mature and die with complete contentment and peace in their old age and would be more satisfied. The word “would” like “ought” changes the tone of the poem, it would be this but it’s not. It has the same effect as ought but is not quite as dramatic. Lawrence uses metaphoric language in this part of the poem. He compares the human ageing process to that of an apple. This shows that he knows what the human ageing process is like. He is dying and doesn’t like it.

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 “soothing, old people should be, like apples”  Lawrence opens the third verse with a negative note again, should saying that it’s not. It is almost as if he is saying that this is the way things should be (pleasant and nice) but they’re not because of the world and also they are not allowed to be because he’ll never experience getting old. He is very resentful of the fact that he is going to die prematurely. The use of the season of Autumn represents decay, the season when things die and go to sleep but do so in a peaceful ...

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