BI. Amy Lowell

	‘Don’t do Japanese things, Amy, if you love us . . . . Alas and alas.’

37. Lawrence, D. H. To Lowell, 23 March 1917. In The Letters of D. H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell, 1914-1925, edited by E. Claire Healey and Keith Cushman. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1985.

The last of the Imagist Anthologies includes Lowell’s Lacquer Prints (5) and poems by Lawrence. Before publication, H. D. had sent Lawrence copies of Lowell’s poems, and in his letter to Lowell about them he anticipates the response of some later critics of Lowell’s japonaiserie, and does not mince words: ‘Don’t do Japanese things, Amy, if you love us. . . . I am so disappointed with this batch you have decided to put in, it isn’t you at all, it has nothing to do with you, and it is not real. Alas and alas, why have you done this thing? . . . Do write from your real self, Amy, don’t make up things from the outside, it is so saddening.’