Analysis of Blue
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
The earth again like a ship steams out of the dark sea over
The edge of the blue, and the sun stands up to see us glide
Slowly into another day; slowly the rover
Vessel of darkness takes the rising tide.
I, on the deck, am startled by this dawn confronting
Me who am issued amazed from the darkness, stripped
And quailing here in the sunshine, delivered from haunting
The night unsounded whereon our days are shipped.
Feeling myself undawning, the day’s light playing upon me,
I who am substance of shadow, I all compact
Of the stuff of the night, finding myself all wrongly
Among the crowds of things in the sunshine jostled and racked.
I with the night on my lips, I sigh with the silence of death;
And what do I care though the very stones should cry me unreal, though the clouds
Shine in conceit of substance upon me, who am less than the rain.
Do I know the darkness within them? What are they but shrouds?
The clouds go down the sky with a wealthy ease
Casting a shadow of scorn upon me for my share in death; but I
Hold my own in the midst of them, darkling, defy
The whole of the day to extinguish the shadow I lift on the breeze.
Yea, though the very clouds have vantage over me,
Enjoying their glancing flight, though my love is dead,
I still am not homeless here, I’ve a tent by day
Of darkness where she sleeps on her perfect bed.
And I know the host, the minute sparkling of darkness
Which vibrates untouched and virile through the grandeur of night,
But which, when dawn crows challenge, assaulting the vivid motes
Of living darkness, bursts fretfully, and is bright:
Runs like a fretted arc-lamp into light,
Stirred by conflict to shining, which else
Were dark and whole with the night.
Runs to a fret of speed like a racing wheel,
Which else were aslumber along with the whole
Of the dark, swinging rhythmic instead of a-reel.
Is chafed to anger, bursts into rage like thunder;
Which else were a silent grasp that held the heavens
Arrested, beating thick with wonder.
Leaps like a fountain of blue sparks leaping
In a jet from out of obscurity,
Which erst was darkness sleeping.
Runs into streams of bright blue drops,
Water and stones and stars, and myriads
Of twin-blue eyes, and crops
Of floury grain, and all the hosts of day,
All lovely hosts of ripples caused by fretting
The Darkness into play.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIIH EJKJ XLXL LXL MXM AXA CEC NGN KCK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010110111101110 01101001111111 1001010110010 1011010101 1101110111010 111100110101 011001010110 011110111 101101110011 11110111110 101101101110 0101110011001 110111111101011 011111010111101101 1001110011111101 11101001111111 01110110101 1001110111110111 11100111101 0110110100111101 110101110101 010110111111 111110110111 11011110011 0110101010110 11001010100111 11111100100101 1101011011 1101011011 111011011 0101101 11011110101 110101101 101101001101 111101011110 110010111010 010101110 1101011110 0011110100 1111010 10111111 10010101 111101 111010111 11011101110 010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,397 |
Words | 428 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:08 min read
- 132 Views
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"Blue" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7819/blue>.
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