Tease

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



I will give you all my keys,
        You shall be my châtelaine,
    You shall enter as you please,
        As you please shall go again.

    When I hear you jingling through
        All the chambers of my soul,
    How I sit and laugh at you
        In your vain housekeeping rôle.

    Jealous of the smallest cover,
      Angry at the simplest door;
  Well, you anxious, inquisitive lover,
      Are you pleased with what's in store?

  You have fingered all my treasures,
      Have you not, most curiously,
  Handled all my tools and measures
      And masculine machinery?

  Over every single beauty
      You have had your little rapture;
  You have slain, as was your duty,
      Every sin-mouse you could capture.

  Still you are not satisfied,
      Still you tremble faint reproach;
  Challenge me I keep aside
      Secrets that you may not broach.

  Maybe yes, and maybe no,
      Maybe there are secret places,
  Altars barbarous below,
      Elsewhere halls of high disgraces.

  Maybe yes, and maybe no,
      You may have it as you please,
  Since I choose to keep you so,
      Suppliant on your curious knees.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme abab cxcx dede fgfg gdgd hihi Bxja Baja
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,135
Words 177
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 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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