Analysis of Scent of Irises
David Herbert Lawrence 1885 (Eastwood, Nottinghamshire) – 1930 (Vence)
A faint, sickening scent of irises
Persists all morning. Here in a jar on the table
A fine proud spike of purple irises
Rising above the class-room litter, makes me unable
To see the class’s lifted and bended faces
Save in a broken pattern, amid purple and gold and sable.
I can smell the gorgeous bog-end, in its breathless
Dazzle of may-blobs, when the marigold glare overcast you
With fire on your cheeks and your brow and your chin as you dipped
Your face in the marigold bunch, to touch and contrast you,
Your own dark mouth with the bridal faint lady-smocks,
Dissolved on the golden sorcery you should not outlast.
You amid the bog-end’s yellow incantation,
You sitting in the cowslips of the meadow above,
Me, your shadow on the bog-flame, flowery may-blobs,
Me full length in the cowslips, muttering you love;
You, your soul like a lady-smock, lost, evanescent,
You with your face all rich, like the sheen of a dove.
You are always asking, do I remember, remember
The butter-cup bog-end where the flowers rose up
And kindled you over deep with a cast of gold?
You ask again, do the healing days close up
The open darkness which then drew us in,
The dark which then drank up our brimming cup.
You upon the dry, dead beech-leaves, in the fire of night
Burnt like a sacrifice; you invisible;
Only the fire of darkness, and the scent of you!
—And yes, thank God, it still is possible
The healing days shall close the darkness up
Wherein we fainted like a smoke or dew.
Like vapour, dew, or poison. Now, thank God,
The fire of night is gone, and your face is ash
Indistinguishable on the grey, chill day;
The night had burst us out, at last the good
Dark fire burns on untroubled, without clash
Of you upon the dead leaves saying me Yea.
Scheme | ABABXB XCXCAX XDXDXD XEXEXE XBCBEC XFGXFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0110011100 0111010011010 0111110100 10010111011010 11011001010 1001010011001010 111010110110 1011110101101 110111011011111 1100101110101 111110101101 0110101001111 101011100110 11000110101 111101110011 11100110011 111101011010 111111101101 1111011010010 010111101011 010110110111 11011010111 0101011110 01111110101 10101111001011 1101010100 1001011000111 0111111100 0101110101 0111010111 111110111 010111101111 00100010111 0111111101 11011010011 11010111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,762 |
Words | 319 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 227 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 87 Views
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"Scent of Irises" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7868/scent-of-irises>.
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