Study

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



Somewhere the long mellow note of the blackbird
Quickens the unclasping hands of hazel,  
Somewhere the wind-flowers fling their heads back,
Stirred by an impetuous wind. Some ways’ll  
All be sweet with white and blue violet.
(Hush now, hush. Where am I?—Biuret—)
 
On the green wood’s edge a shy girl hovers  
From out of the hazel-screen on to the grass,  
Where wheeling and screaming the petulant plovers
Wave frighted. Who comes? A labourer, alas!
Oh the sunset swims in her eyes’ swift pool.  
(Work, work, you fool——!)
 
Somewhere the lamp hanging low from the ceiling
Lights the soft hair of a girl as she reads,  
And the red firelight steadily wheeling
Weaves the hard hands of my friend in sleep.  
And the white dog snuffs the warmth, appealing
For the man to heed lest the girl shall weep.  
(Tears and dreams for them; for me  
   Bitter science—the exams are near.
   I wish I bore it more patiently.  
   I wish you did not wait, my dear,  
   For me to come: since work I must:  
   Though it’s all the same when we are dead.—
   I wish I was only a bust,
       All head.)

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

59 sec read
49

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXBXA CDCDEE FXFGFGHIHIJKJK
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,092
Words 197
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 14

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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