DH Lawrence was more than a storyteller of erotic tendency.

His poetry was bold and original, as this sample indicates.

ELEMENTAL

Why don't people leave off being lovable

Or thinking they are lovable, or wanting to be lovable,

And be a bit elemental instead?

Since man is made up of the elements

Fire, and rain, and air, and live loam

And none of these is lovable

But elemental,

Man is lop-sided on the side of the angels.

I wish men would get back their balance among the elements

And be a bit more fiery, as incapable of telling lies

As fire is.

I wish they'd be true to their own variation, as water is,

Which goes through all the stages of steam and stream and ice

Without losing its head.

I am sick of lovable people

Somehow they are a lie.