The Punisher

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



I have fetched the tears up out of the little wells,
Scooped them up with small, iron words,
   Dripping over the runnels.  
 
The harsh, cold wind of my words drove on, and still
I watched the tears on the guilty cheek of the boys
   Glitter and spill.  
 
Cringing Pity, and Love, white-handed, came
Hovering about the Judgment which stood in my eyes,
   Whirling a flame.

   .    .    .    .    .    .    .  

The tears are dry, and the cheeks’ young fruits are fresh
With laughter, and clear the exonerated eyes, since pain
   Beat through the flesh.  
 
The Angel of Judgment has departed again to the Nearness.
Desolate I am as a church whose lights are put out.
   And night enters in drearness.

The fire rose up in the bush and blazed apace,
The thorn-leaves crackled and twisted and sweated in anguish;
   Then God left the place.
 
Like a flower that the frost has hugged and let go, my head
Is heavy, and my heart beats slowly, laboriously,
   My strength is shed.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
109

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXX BXB CXC DXD AXA EXE FXF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 960
Words 166
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

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…

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