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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
184

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAXA BCBC DXXD EEEE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 686
Words 126
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

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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