New Poems (Version 2)

D. H. Lawrence's poetry changed stylistically during the First World War when, influenced by Walt Whitman, he began to write free verse. He set forth his manifesto for much of his later verse in the introduction to New Poems. "We can get rid of the stereotyped movements and the old hackneyed associations of sound or sense. We can break down those artificial conduits and canals through which we do so love to force our utterance. We can break the stiff neck of habit, but we cannot positively prescribe any motion, any rhythm." (Summary by Alan Mapstone and the Introduction)