Dolor of Autumn

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



The acrid scents of autumn,  
Reminiscent of slinking beasts, make me fear  
Everything, tear-trembling stars of autumn  
And the snore of the night in my ear.  
 
For suddenly, flush-fallen,
All my life, in a rush  
Of shedding away, has left me  
Naked, exposed on the bush.  
 
I, on the bush of the globe,  
Like a newly-naked berry, shrink
Disclosed: but I also am prowling  
As well in the scents that slink  
 
Abroad: I in this naked berry  
Of flesh that stands dismayed on the bush;
And I in the stealthy, brindled odours
Prowling about the lush  
 
And acrid night of autumn;  
My soul, along with the rout,  
Rank and treacherous, prowling,
Disseminated out.
 
For the night, with a great breath intaken,
Has taken my spirit outside  
Me, till I reel with disseminated consciousness,
Like a man who has died.  
 
At the same time I stand exposed
Here on the bush of the globe,  
A newly-naked berry of flesh  
For the stars to probe.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
108

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX XBCD EFGF CDHB AIGI AJHJ XEXE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 921
Words 165
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 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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