Analysis of A Passing Bell

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



Mournfully to and fro, to and fro the trees are waving;  
What did you say, my dear?
The rain-bruised leaves are suddenly shaken, as a child
Asleep still shakes in the clutch of a sob—  
Yes, my love, I hear.

One lonely bell, one only, the storm-tossed afternoon is braving,
Why not let it ring?
The roses lean down when they hear it, the tender, mild
Flowers of the bleeding-heart fall to the throb—  
It is such a little thing!

A wet bird walks on the lawn, call to the boy to come and look,
Yes, it is over now.
Call to him out of the silence, call him to see  
The starling shaking its head as it walks in the grass—
Ah, who knows how?

He cannot see it, I can never show it him, how it shook—
Don’t disturb him, darling.
—Its head as it walked: I can never call him to me,  
Never, he is not, whatever shall come to pass.  
No, look at the wet starling.


Scheme AXBCX AABCA DEFGE DAFGA
Poetic Form Etheree  (20%)
Metre 110110101110 111111 0111110010101 0111001101 11111 110111001101110 11111 0101111110101 10101011101 1110101 011110111011101 111101 111110101111 0101011111001 1111 110111110111111 101110 1111111101111 10111101111 1110110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 861
Words 172
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 159
Words per stanza (avg) 43
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
112

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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