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A Mystical Reading of D. H. Lawrence’s “Shadows”

Abstract

Though D. H. Lawrence was not a mystic or a mystical poet, his poem “Shadows” is a mystical poem par excellence. However, this aspect has never been given its due of study. Due to the depth of the inexpressible mystical experience, mystical poets resort to symbolic language to render their experiences. This paper aims at exploring the poet’s mystical experience in this poem and it is divided into two sections. The first section is introductory; it attempts to shed light on mysticism, its meaning and nature to reach at an acceptable definition of “mysticism”. The second is devoted to a detailed analysis of the mystical experience and the main mystical symbols in the poem such as water, autumn, darkness, dry tree, blossoms, and the phoenix. The paper also shows the diversity of the poet’s sources of this experience by relating it to Christian and even Islamic mystical thought or even to Indian mysticism. It also attempts to point out the major influences on Lawrence, namely those of the Spanish mystic John of the Cross, Islamic mysticism and Indian Mysticism. The last part of the poem is the conclusion which sums up the results of the study.

Keywords: Lawrence, mysticism, shadows, mystical experience, symbols