Who Dares Leap into the Tide of New Life?
By. D.H. Lawrence
Sappho leaped off into the sea of death.
But this is easy. Who dares leap off from the old world into the inception of the new? Who dares give himself to the tide of living peace?
Many have gone in the tide of death. Who dares leap into the tide of new life?
Who dares to perish from the old static entity, lend himself to the unresolved wonder?
Who dares have done with his old self?
Who dares have done with himself, and with all the rest of the old-established world; who dares have done with his own righteousness; who dares have done with humanity?
It is time to have done with all these, and be given to the unknown which will come to pass.
It is the only way.
There is this supreme act of courage demanded from every man who would move in a world of life.
Empedocles ostentatiously leaps into the crater of the volcano. But a living man must leap away from himself into the much more awful fires of creation.
You can find this passage in D.H. Lawrence’s profound book of essays—Reflection on the Death of a Porcupine: And Other Essays
Love this, to leap away from the old, tired, dying sense of self into the cauldron of the ever renewing fires of life. Why tarry with this drab spector of death always on the horizon when immersed in the brilliant abundance of life? We waste our hours that way, in that sad melancholy. A tired cliche.
Nice to see some outlaw optimism instead of nihilism or despair. Good to leap into the nes coming but until death i will tame with me good things.