Whales Weep Not!

They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.
All the whales in the wider deeps, hot are they, as they urge
on and on, and dive beneath the icebergs.
The right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads, the killers
there they blow, there they blow, hot wild white breath out of the sea!

And they rock, and they rock, through the sensual ageless ages
on the depths of the seven seas,
and through the salt they reel with drunk delight
and in the tropics tremble they with love
and roll with massive, strong desire, like gods.
Then the great bull lies up against his bride
in the blue deep of the sea

as mountain pressing on mountain, in the zest of life:
and out of the inward roaring of the inner red ocean of whale blood
the long tip reaches strong, intense, like the maelstrom-tip, and comes to rest
in the clasp and the soft, wild clutch of a she-whale's fathomless body.

And over the bridge of the whale's strong phallus, linking the wonder of whales
the burning archangels under the sea keep passing, back and forth,
keep passing archangels of bliss
from him to her, from her to him, great Cherubim
that wait on whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the sea
great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies.
And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-tender young
and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters of the beginning and the end.

And bull-whales gather their women and whale-calves in a ring
when danger threatens, on the surface of the ceaseless flood
and range themselves like great fierce Seraphim facing the threat
encircling their huddled monsters of love.
and all this happiness in the sea, in the salt
where God is also love, but without words:
and Aphrodite is the wife of whales
most happy, happy she!

and Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin
she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea
she is the female tunny-fish, round and happy among the males
and dense with happy blood, dark rainbow bliss in the sea.

D.H. Lawrence , Last Poems, 1933

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English novelist and poet, ranked as one of the most influential and controversial figures among literary circles of the 20th century. He extolled a personal vision of the whole human as a natural being, adverse to the modern industrial society with it's dehumanizing and artificiality of life and love. His early poems reflect the influence of Ezra Pound and Imagist movement, which reached its peak in the early teens of the twentieth century. When Pound attempted to draw Lawrence into his circle of writer followers, Lawrence decided to pursue a more independent path.

Authoring over 40 books in his lifetime, most were misunderstood, attacked and even suppressed because of their outspoken candor about sexual and psychological relationships between men and women. His most notorious novel was Lady Chatterley's Lover. It remained unpublished in the United States until 1959 and in 1960 saw its debut in England; it had been suppressed in both countries until the courts upheld its publication.

Lawrence's novels, or his short stories, or even his thousands of letters would have been enough to establish him as a great 20th century writer, but he also wrote astonishing poetry. Whales Weep Not! is an illustration of how Lawrence makes sex religious. Lawrence wrote a companion poem to this one called They Say the Sea is Loveless. In both poems the sea becomes symbolic of passions where the sea life are the beings that romp and folly with the mythological gods. The whale here is the ' bearer of the cosmos ' as ' a symbol of the Earth's foundations' when he writes:

And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-tender young
and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters of the beginning and the end.

Scholars put the composition date around October 1929. The first publication date was in 1933 where it appeared in his collection titled Last Poems . You may recognize the first two lines ...

They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent

They are indeed quoted by Captain James T. Kirk in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), where the intrepid Enterprise ventures back in time to save the Earth by re-establishing the humpback whale in its oceans so that an alien ship may communicate with them. Other scholars relate that Lawrence was influenced by what he remembered from reading Moby Dick and point to in particular chapters 87 and 132 in Herman Melville's epic novel.

If angels could swim they might be dolphins? Cherubim in line 21 of the poem refers to the order of angels renowned for their knowledge:

that wait on whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the sea
great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies.

Line 28 refers to Seraphim another order of angels renowned for their love who:

....facing the threat
encircling their huddled monsters of love.
and all this happiness in the sea, in the salt
where God is also love, but without words:

Aphrodite in line 32 is:

the wife of whales
most happy, happy she!

and Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin
she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea

Refers to the birth of Aphrodite who most know as as Venus, Greek goddess of love, born of the ocean foam. Some say Lawrence had it in mind that this is an act of atonement between the elements of the water and the air, while the fusion of fire and earth is implied in the depiction of procreation as a universal desire shared by human beings and whales. Finally in line 36 tunny-fish is Lawrence using his poetical license for tuna.

Whales Weep Not! is also the title of a selection on a recording entitled Whales Alive! (1981) prepared by Paul Winter and Paul Halley.

The composers "create a new musical adventure, with original compositions based on melodies by the humpback whales. Soprano sax and whale voices soar over the titanic pipe organ of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Leonard Nimoy narrates selections from Moby Dick and the poetry of D. H. Lawrence, Gary Snyder, and Roger Payne."

review from The Whale Conservation Institute.

It's difficult to imagine in this day why Lawrence's works caused such controversy. His realism, honesty, and a didactic awareness of humanity's potential to experience life with a sincere perception keeps his works in the literary canon. A lifelong sufferer from tuberculosis, Lawrence died in 1930 on March 2 in a sanatorium in Vence, France.

in memoriam of Christopher-Daniel Edwards (1974?-2001)

Sources:

Anne Ford Projects:
www.baylor.edu/

D.H. Lawrence:
http://www.poets.org/

Lexikon Publishing - Newsletter:
www.lexikon-publishing.co.uk