The Inheritance

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



Since you did depart
Out of my reach, my darling,
Into the hidden,  
I see each shadow start  
With recognition, and I
Am wonder-ridden.  
 
I am dazed with the farewell,  
But I scarcely feel your loss.  
You left me a gift  
Of tongues, so the shadows tell
Me things, and silences toss  
Me their drift.  
 
You sent me a cloven fire  
Out of death, and it burns in the draught
Of the breathing hosts,
Kindles the darkening pyre  
For the sorrowful, till strange brands waft
Like candid ghosts.  
 
Form after form, in the streets  
Waves like a ghost along,
Kindled to me;  
The star above the house-top greets
Me every eve with a long  
Song fierily.  
 
All day long, the town
Glimmers with subtle ghosts  
Going up and down  
In a common, prison-like dress;  
But their daunted looking flickers
To me, and I answer, Yes!
 
So I am not lonely nor sad  
Although bereaved of you,  
My little love.  
I move among a kinsfolk clad  
With words, but the dream shows through
As they move.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

53 sec read
120

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBAXB CDECDE FXGFXG HIXHIC JGJKXK LMXLMX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 956
Words 177
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

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…

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