Analysis of Reproach
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
Had I but known yesterday,
Helen, you could discharge the ache
Out of the cloud;
Had I known yesterday you could take
The turgid electric ache away,
Drink it up with your proud
White body, as lovely white lightning
Is drunk from an agonised sky by the earth,
I might have hated you, Helen.
But since my limbs gushed full of fire,
Since from out of my blood and bone
Poured a heavy flame
To you, earth of my atmosphere, stone
Of my steel, lovely white flint of desire,
You have no name.
Earth of my swaying atmosphere,
Substance of my inconstant breath,
I cannot but cleave to you.
Since you have drunken up the drear
Painful electric storm, and death
Is washed from the blue
Of my eyes, I see you beautiful.
You are strong and passive and beautiful,
I come like winds that uncertain hover;
But you
Are the earth I hover over.
Scheme | ABCBACXXX DEFEDFXGH DGHIIDHD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110 10110101 1101 11110111 010010101 111111 110110110 111111101 11110110 111111110 11111101 10101 11111101 11110111010 1111 1111010 101111 1101111 11110101 10010101 11101 111111100 1110100100 1111101010 11 10111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 841 |
Words | 157 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 8 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 74 Views
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"Reproach" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7866/reproach>.
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