Analysis of Kangaroo

David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)



Delicate mother Kangaroo
Sitting up there rabbit-wise, but huge, plump-weighted,
And lifting her beautiful slender face, oh! so much more
gently and finely lined than a rabbit's, or than a hare's,
Lifting her face to nibble at a round white peppermint drop
which she loves, sensitive mother Kangaroo.

Her sensitive, long, pure-bred face.
Her full antipodal eyes, so dark,
So big and quiet and remote, having watched so many
empty dawns in silent Australia.

Her little loose hands, and drooping Victorian shoulders.
And then her great weight below the waist, her vast pale belly,
With a thin young yellow little paw hanging out, and
straggle of a long thin ear, like ribbon,
Like a funny trimming to the middle of her belly, thin
little dangle of an immature paw, and one thin ear.

Her belly, her big haunches
And, in addition, the great muscular python-stretch of her tail.

There, she shan't have any more peppermint drops.
So she wistfully, sensitively sniffs the air, and then turns,
goes off in slow sad leaps
On the long flat skis of her legs,
Steered and propelled by that steel-strong snake of a tail.

Stops again, half turns, inquisitive to look back.
While something stirs quickly in her belly, and a lean little
face comes out, as from a window,
Peaked and a bit dismayed,
Only to disappear again quickly away from the sight of the
world, to snuggle down in the warmth,
Leaving the trail of a different paw hanging out.

Still she watches with eternal, cocked wistfulness!
How full her eyes are, like the full, fathomless, shining
eyes of an Australian black-boy
Who has been lost so many centuries on the margins of
existence!
She watches with insatiable wistfulness.
Untold centuries of watching for something to come,
For a new signal from life, in that silent lost land of the
South.

Where nothing bites but insects and snakes and the sun,
small life.
Where no bull roared, no cow ever lowed, no stag cried,
no leopard screeched, no lion coughed, no dog barked,
But all was silent save for parrots occasionally, in the
haunted blue bush.

Wistfully watching, with wonderful liquid eyes.
And all her weight, all her blood, dropping sackwise down
towards the earth's centre,
And the live little-one taking in its paw at the door of her
belly.


Scheme AXXBXA XXCD XCXEXX BF XXXXF XXXXDXX GXXXXGXDX EXXXDX XXHHC
Poetic Form
Metre 1001001 101110111110 01001001011111 1001011011101 10011101011101 1111001001 01001111 010100111 11010001101110 101010010 01011010010010 01011010101110 1011101011010 1010111110 101010101010101 1010110110111 010011 0001001100101101 11111101101 111001000101011 110111 10111101 100111111101 101110100111 110110001000110 11111010 100101 1010101100110110 11101001 1001101001101 111010101100 11011101110 11101011 111111010010101 010 11010100100 0110011011011 101101101101110 1 11011101001 11 111111101111 11011101111 1111011100100000 1011 100101100101 01011011011 010110 0011011001110110 10
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,259
Words 390
Sentences 20
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 6, 4, 6, 2, 5, 7, 9, 6, 5
Lines Amount 50
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 198
Words per stanza (avg) 43
Font size:
 

Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:58 min read
190

David Herbert Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence was an English writer and poet. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Lawrence's writing explores issues such as sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage". At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the literary critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness. more…

All David Herbert Lawrence poems | David Herbert Lawrence Books

0 fans

Discuss this David Herbert Lawrence poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Kangaroo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7849/kangaroo>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    More poems by

    David Herbert Lawrence

    »

    March 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    3
    days
    1
    hour
    27
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    Who is considered to be the greatest poet of Russia’s golden age?
    A Charles Baudelaire
    B Leo Tolstoy
    C Alexander Pushkin
    D Vladimir Mayakovsky