Half-Hours with the W.E.A.

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 41, 22 April 1932, Page 23

Half-Hours with the W.E.A.

D. H.

Lawrence

PoE following is an outline of a talk on D. H. Lawrence, to be delivered from 1XYA on Wednesday, April 27, by the Rey. W. Jellie, B.A. It is the third of a series entitled "Four Modern Poets" :- 1. His reputation-By some regarded as a prophet of social regeneration: by others as a bewildered disseminator of indecency. An explanation found in the circumstances of his early life, in a spiritual conflict arising therefrom, combined with wartime experiences and unfavourable reception of his books. 2. The spiritual drama of his life-a moving story, as told by his biographer in "Son of Woman," and as revealed, intensely, poignantly and beautifully, in his own novels and poems, 3. Representative of the age, in his almost universal dissatisfaction with things as they are and with life as it is organised in society. . His problem was the everlasting problem of the divided being of man, and how to attain a harmony of flesh and spirit. He was frenzied by torturing inability to see a clear way to peace. His life was a search for a principle of unification-may we not. say, a search for a religion. His intense earnestness, absolute sincerity, fearless and reckless utterance, with a touch of genius even if undeveloped, make him a writer who has exercised and will exercise a potent influence. 4, It is interesting to see how with all his ferocity of denunciation he retains a faith in the future. "Keep still," he says, "Det the waves of destruction do their work. Hold fast to the grain of something that the waves ‘cannot wash away. | Guard the last treasure of the soul. Wait. For the word is Resurrection." This comes out more clearly in his poetry than in his prose.