Analysis of A Youth Mowing

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



There are four men mowing down by the Isar;
    I can hear the swish of the scythe-strokes, four
    Sharp breaths taken: yea, and I
    Am sorry for what's in store.

The first man out of the four that's mowing
    Is mine, I claim him once and for all;
    Though it's sorry I am, on his young feet, knowing
    None of the trouble he's led to stall.

As he sees me bringing the dinner, he lifts
  His head as proud as a deer that looks
  Shoulder-deep out of the corn; and wipes
  His scythe-blade bright, unhooks

The scythe-stone and over the stubble to me.
  Lad, thou hast gotten a child in me,
  Laddie, a man thou'lt ha'e to be,
  Yea, though I'm sorry for thee.


Scheme AAXA BCBC DXXD EEEE
Poetic Form Quatrain  (50%)
Metre 1111101101 1110110111 1110101 1101101 0111101110 111111011 111011111110 110101111 11111001011 111110111 101110101 11111 01101001011 111100101 10111111 1111011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 686
Words 126
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 120
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
184

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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