title: Body and spirit in the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence

authors: Prisco, Mark

abstract: This thesis examines the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence in terms of its religious and aesthetic significance. I explore the common ground between these two writers, and their spiritual and philosophical differences as expressed in the content and style of their poetry, and other work. I argue that they were both driven by their dissatisfaction with the modern industrial age—the ethos that determined ‘utility’ and ‘progress’ as the means to fulfilment—which for them, however, was synonymous with the cultural and spiritual wasteland of modernity, a world without ‘god’.

Eliot’s response, implicit in his poetry, was to posit a spiritual unity, a homogenous community of shared values underpinned, eventually, by Christianity—a religion that ultimately dispenses with the body, and leads us toward the Divine Father, the bodiless God. Lawrence, in contrast, keeps his reader firmly grounded in the physical world of touch—for him, the only possible world, without which there can be no spirit. We are resurrected, Lawrence believed, in the flesh—or not at all. 

Their respective views are evidenced throughout their poetry. We see, even in his ‘pre-Christian’ poetry, Eliot’s preoccupation with the body—his moral and aesthetic repulsion against it; and indeed I suggest that his negative depictions of the body are a prelude to his later ‘Christian’ poetry. This, I contrast with Lawrence’s glorification of the body, as manifested throughout his poetry; and I suggest that Lawrence’s ‘philosophy of life’ is morally more sound because it is grounded in nature. Although Eliot’s Christianity is not an attempt to escape the world and his responsibilities, it is nonetheless a dismissal of life in the flesh and all of its attendant joys and sorrows. It would annihilate the opposition (‘evil’, ‘darkness’, ‘lion’), and seeks release from the natural world, the tension that holds everything together, which would lead towards a cosmic imbalance, the extinction of nature, of everything—of time, into the bodiless Eternal, the resolution of body into spirit.

But if there is no darkness, there is no light. This, Lawrence expresses most explicitly in his non-fiction, but his poetry is alive with it—the cosmic significance of everything, the unbegotten spark from which a god is born: the present eternal moment. 

The final section of my thesis is a collection of poetry (to not let go) written over the duration of three or four years. It represents my creative response to the critical component outlined above. My poems are not an imitation of Eliot and Lawrence, but evidence nonetheless of direct engagement with those two poets and the subject matter of my thesis.

text: Body and spirit in the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence This thesis examines the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence in terms of its religious and aesthetic significance. I explore the common ground between these two writers, and their spiritual and philosophical differences as expressed in the content and style of their poetry, and other work. I argue that they were both driven by their dissatisfaction with the modern industrial age—the ethos that determined ‘utility’ and ‘progress’ as the means to fulfilment—which for them, however, was synonymous with the cultural and spiritual wasteland of modernity, a world without ‘god’.

Eliot’s response, implicit in his poetry, was to posit a spiritual unity, a homogenous community of shared values underpinned, eventually, by Christianity—a religion that ultimately dispenses with the body, and leads us toward the Divine Father, the bodiless God. Lawrence, in contrast, keeps his reader firmly grounded in the physical world of touch—for him, the only possible world, without which there can be no spirit. We are resurrected, Lawrence believed, in the flesh—or not at all. 

Their respective views are evidenced throughout their poetry. We see, even in his ‘pre-Christian’ poetry, Eliot’s preoccupation with the body—his moral and aesthetic repulsion against it; and indeed I suggest that his negative depictions of the body are a prelude to his later ‘Christian’ poetry. This, I contrast with Lawrence’s glorification of the body, as manifested throughout his poetry; and I suggest that Lawrence’s ‘philosophy of life’ is morally more sound because it is grounded in nature. Although Eliot’s Christianity is not an attempt to escape the world and his responsibilities, it is nonetheless a dismissal of life in the flesh and all of its attendant joys and sorrows. It would annihilate the opposition (‘evil’, ‘darkness’, ‘lion’), and seeks release from the natural world, the tension that holds everything together, which would lead towards a cosmic imbalance, the extinction of nature, of everything—of time, into the bodiless Eternal, the resolution of body into spirit.

But if there is no darkness, there is no light. This, Lawrence expresses most explicitly in his non-fiction, but his poetry is alive with it—the cosmic significance of everything, the unbegotten spark from which a god is born: the present eternal moment. 

The final section of my thesis is a collection of poetry (to not let go) written over the duration of three or four years. It represents my creative response to the critical component outlined above. My poems are not an imitation of Eliot and Lawrence, but evidence nonetheless of direct engagement with those two poets and the subject matter of my thesis.

year: 2024-04-22

title: Conclusion

authors: Williams, P. John

subjects: education

abstract: As the preceding papers have illustrated, there are two innovations within project e-scape. The first concerns the development of an e-portfolio system that enables learners to capture evidence of their activity (using hand-held devices in the workshop/studio/science lab/playing field) and to lodge it in a web-space where their portfolio emerges dynamically, in real-time. Teachers and examination bodies can interact with this system to a greater or lesser extent according to the circumstances. If the activity is part of a formal examination, then the Awarding Body can specify the task and the activity framework (all of which can be downloaded by the school) and teachers in many schools can then run the same activity in a standard way. If the activity is a normal piece of curriculum, then teachers can design activities for individuals or groups of learners and either run them with the learners, or enable the learners themselves to work through the activity autonomously. In any event, the outcome of all this is a web-portfolio.
The second innovation concerns the assessment of these portfolios. Using comparative judgement and the pairs engine, groups of teachers and/or examiners can collaborate in the assessment of groups of portfolios. This might be for an Awarding Body, with the results counting towards an official award, or it might be within a school, where collaborating teachers use the data for their own purposes. These two innovations were launched in 2009 with the final report of phase 3 of the e-scape project. The purpose of this concluding piece is to reflect on what has happened since then; on the extent to which these innovations have been adopted in various parts of the world and the issues that this adoption is raising. Sometimes the adoption has been of only one of the innovations (either the portfolio-building or the comparative judgement), and sometimes it has been both.

text: Conclusion As the preceding papers have illustrated, there are two innovations within project e-scape. The first concerns the development of an e-portfolio system that enables learners to capture evidence of their activity (using hand-held devices in the workshop/studio/science lab/playing field) and to lodge it in a web-space where their portfolio emerges dynamically, in real-time. Teachers and examination bodies can interact with this system to a greater or lesser extent according to the circumstances. If the activity is part of a formal examination, then the Awarding Body can specify the task and the activity framework (all of which can be downloaded by the school) and teachers in many schools can then run the same activity in a standard way. If the activity is a normal piece of curriculum, then teachers can design activities for individuals or groups of learners and either run them with the learners, or enable the learners themselves to work through the activity autonomously. In any event, the outcome of all this is a web-portfolio.
The second innovation concerns the assessment of these portfolios. Using comparative judgement and the pairs engine, groups of teachers and/or examiners can collaborate in the assessment of groups of portfolios. This might be for an Awarding Body, with the results counting towards an official award, or it might be within a school, where collaborating teachers use the data for their own purposes. These two innovations were launched in 2009 with the final report of phase 3 of the e-scape project. The purpose of this concluding piece is to reflect on what has happened since then; on the extent to which these innovations have been adopted in various parts of the world and the issues that this adoption is raising. Sometimes the adoption has been of only one of the innovations (either the portfolio-building or the comparative judgement), and sometimes it has been both.

year: 2011

title: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings

authors: Houia-Roberts, Ngaere

subjects: Māori medium education

abstract: I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

text: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

year: 2003-09