D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, in Nottinghamshire, England. Lawrence's home life was complicated by the constant domestic tensions between his parents, and he felt out of place in Eastwood, which was a rough mining town. After attending university, Lawrence began teaching and worked at establishing a literary career. He created a scandal by eloping with Frieda Weekly, the German born wife of one of his former professors, and the person who was to have the profoundest impact on his work. Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1930.

During his lifetime Lawrence was best known as a novelist, although his first published works were in fact poems. His poetry has come to be more and more highly regarded in the years since his death, and he had a profound influence on succeeding generations of poets, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Among his collections of poetry were Look! We Have Come Through! (1917) Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1923), and Pansies (1929).