Analysis of Conceit

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



It is conceit that kills us
and makes us cowards instead of gods.

Under the great Command: Know thy self, and that thou art mortal!
we have become fatally self-conscious, fatally self-important, fatally entangled in the Laocoön coils of our conceit.

Now we have to admit we can't know ourselves, we can only know about ourselves.
And I am not interested to know about myself any more,
I only entangle myself in the knowing.

Now let me be myself,
now let me be myself, and flicker forth,
now let me be myself, in the being, one of the gods.


Scheme XA XX XXX XXA
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111 011100111 100101111011110 110110011010010101000100011111001 1111011110011110101001 011110011011101 11001010010 11111 111110101 1111100101101
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 539
Words 101
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 3, 3
Lines Amount 10
Letters per line (avg) 42
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 25
Font size:
 

Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
116

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

0 fans

Discuss this David Herbert Lawrence poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Conceit" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7823/conceit>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    April 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    0
    days
    9
    hours
    11
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    Who wrote the poem "No Man Is An Island"?
    A Robert Browning
    B Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    C Ezra Pound
    D John Donne