![](http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/images/lawrence_shrine.JPG)
The Lawrence Memorial Altar
There is some conjecture regarding the
fate of the ashes. Some say that they were dumped by Ravagli somewhere between Marseilles and Villefranche
and that he subsequently procured
alternative ashes which he eventually took to Taos. Others say that they arrived
safely and Frieda chose to have them added to the concrete of the shrine.Lawrence
had previously lived on the Kiowa Ranch with Frieda. After his death she gave it to
the University of New Mexico stipulating that it be used as a study centre. It is
now known as the D. H. Lawrence Ranch.
Lawrence is chiefly remembered as a novelist but he was also a prolific
poet. His collections include Love Poems (1913), Birds, Beast
and Flowers (1923), Pansies (1929), and Last
Poems (1929). However, it was not until he abandoned
traditional verse and meter forms that he found his own distinctive
voice. Influenced by the free verse of Walt
Whitman, Lawrence wrote some of the finest nature poems in the
English language e.g. Snake and
Kangaroo. Lawrence's nature poetry had a profound influence on the work of
Ted Hughes. By the time Lawrence wrote The
Ship of Death, he was already gravely ill and it deals with his
own impending death. It ends with the lines: ' Oh build your ship of death,
oh build it! for you will need it. For the voyage of oblivion awaits you.' See also
imagism.
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