A Human Tortoise Crucified into Sex and Resurrection? D.H. Lawrence's Cosmopoetic Eroticism

Abstract

Este artículo se centra principalmente en lo que he llamado la cosmopoética en los poemas “de amor y sexo” de D.H. Lawrence desde Love Poems and Others (1913) pasando por Look! We Have Come Through (1917) hasta Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923), desde una perspectiva estética y psicobiográfica combinada; especialmente la trayectoria cosmopoética que observo desde el Lawrence adolescente presentado en forma de tortuga sexualmente crucificada, resentida por los “lazos atrofiados” de la castidad impuesta, al Lawrence que se ha convertido en el amante y marido de Frieda sexualmente realizado, el “señor elevado” o la rosa completamente florecida “con dulce asombro/ rebosante de calor sutil”. La tortuga sexualmente crucificada, sin embargo, alzará aún su cabeza de Medusa porque Lawrence es sumamente consciente de la contingencia y fragilidad de su voluntad masculina, absolutamente dependiente del amor de Frieda. A la sombra creciente de su condición de tuberculoso, sostengo que el erotismo cosmopoético de Lawrence tiende más a ser cósmico que erótico, y su apoteosis cosmopoética final se verá articulada en el sublime epitafio de Apocalypse (1931), el cual describo como una “fusión del cuerpo humano y la muerte en una especie de Liebestod cósmico”.

From a combined aesthetic and psychobiographical perspective, this article mainly focuses on what I have called the cosmopoetics of D.H. Lawrence’s “sex-love” poems from Love Poems and Others (1913) through Look! We Have Come Through (1917) to Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923), especially the cosmopoetic trajectory from the adolescent Lawrence as the sex-crucified tortoise smarting under the ‘stunting bonds” of enforced chastity to the Lawrence that, as Frieda’s sexually fulfilled lover and husband, has become the “risen lord” and full-blown rose “with the wonder mellow/ Full of fine warmth.” The tortoise of sex-crucifixion will, however, still rear its Medusa head because Lawrence is acutely aware of the contingency and fragility of his masculine prowess, which is so utterly dependent upon Frieda’s love. In the increasing shadow of his tubercular condition, I argue, Lawrence’s cosmopoetic eroticism tends to become more cosmic than erotic, and his ultimate cosmopoetic apotheosis will be articulated in the sublime epitaph of Apocalypse (1931), which I describe as a “fusion of the human body and death into some kind of cosmic Liebestod.”