In a Boat

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



See the stars, love,
In the water much clearer and brighter
Than those above us, and whiter,  
Like nenuphars.  
 
Star-shadows shine, love,
How many stars in your bowl?  
How many shadows in your soul,
Only mine, love, mine?  
 
When I move the oars, love,  
See how the stars are tossed,
Distorted, the brightest lost.  
—So that bright one of yours, love.
 
The poor waters spill  
The stars, waters broken, forsaken.  
—The heavens are not shaken, you say, love,
Its stars stand still.  
 
There, did you see  
That spark fly up at us; even  
Stars are not safe in heaven.  
—What of yours, then, love, yours?
 
What then, love, if soon  
Your light be tossed over a wave?
Will you count the darkness a grave,
And swoon, love, swoon?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
56

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBC ADDX AEEA FGAF CXGC HIIH
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 723
Words 130
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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

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