Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

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Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated) Page 821

by D. H. Lawrence


  An’ they’re ta’ein ‘im i’ th’ ambulance

  To Nottingham,” — Eh dear o’ me

  If ‘e’s not a man for mischance!

  Wheers he hurt this time, lad?

  — I dunna know,

  They on’y towd me it wor bad —

  It would be so!

  Eh, what a man! — an’ that cobbly road,

  They’ll jolt him a’most to death,

  I’m sure he’s in for some trouble

  Nigh every time he takes breath.

  Out o’ my way, childt — dear o* me, wheer

  Have I put his clean stockings and shirt;

  Goodness knows if they’ll be able

  To take off his pit dirt.

  An’ what a moan he’ll make — there niver

  Was such a man for a fuss

  If anything ailed him — at any rate

  I shan’t have him to nuss.

  I do hope it’s not very bad!

  Eh, what a shame it seems

  As some should ha’e hardly a smite o’ trouble

  An’ others has reams.

  It’s a shame as ‘e should be knocked about

  Like this, I’m sure it is!

  He’s had twenty accidents, if he’s had one;

  Owt bad, an’ it’s his.

  There’s one thing, we ‘11 have peace for a bit,

  Thank Heaven for a peaceful house;

  An’ there’s compensation, sin’ it’s accident,

  An’ club money — I nedn’t grouse.

  An’ a fork an’ a spoon he’ll want, an’ what else;

  I s’ll never catch that train —

  What a trapse it is if a man gets hurt —

  I s’d think he’ll get right again.

  THE DRAINED CUP

  The snow is witherin’ off n th’ gress

  Love, should I tell thee summat?

  The snow is witherin’ offn th’ gress

  An’ a thick mist sucks at the clots o’ snow,

  An’ the moon above in a weddin’ dress

  Goes fogged an’ slow —

  Love, should I tell thee summat?

  Tha’s been snowed up i’ this cottage wi’ me.

  Nay, I’m tellin’ thee summat. —

  Tha’s bin snowed up i’ this cottage wi’ me

  While th’ clocks has a’ run down an’ stopped

  An’ the short days withering silently

  Unbeknown have dropped.

  — Yea, but I’m tellin’ thee summat.

  How many days dost think has gone? —

  Now I’m tellin’ thee summat.

  How many days dost think has gone?

  How many days has the candle-light shone

  On us as tha got more white an’ wan?

  — Seven days, or none —

  Am I not tellin’ thee summat?

  Tha come to bid farewell to me —

  Tha’rt frit o’ summat.

  To kiss me and shed a tear wi’ me,

  Then off and away wi’ the weddin’ ring

  For the girl who was grander, and better than me

  For marrying —

  Tha’rt frit o’ summat?

  I durstna kiss thee tha trembles so,

  Tha’rt frit o’ summat.

  Tha arena very flig to go,

  ‘Appen the mist from the thawin’ snow

  Daunts thee — it isna for love, I know,

  That tha’rt loath to go.

  — Dear o’ me, say summat.

  Maun tha cling to the wa’ as tha goes.

  So bad as that?

  Tha’lt niver get into thy weddin clothes

  At that rate — eh, theer goes thy hat;

  Ne’er mind, good-bye lad, now I lose

  My joy, God knows,

  — An’ worse nor that.

  The road goes under the apple tree;

  Look, for I’m showin’ thee summat.

  An’ if it worn’t for the mist, tha’d see

  The great black wood on all sides o’ thee

  Wi’ the little pads going cunningly

  To ravel thee.

  So listen, I’m tellin’ thee summat.

  When tha comes to the beechen avenue,

  I’m warnin’ thee o’ summat.

  Mind tha shall keep inwards, a few

  Steps to the right, for the gravel pits

  Are steep an’ deep wi’ watter, an’ you

  Are scarce o’ your wits.

  Remember, I’ve warned thee o’ summat.

  An’ mind when crossin’ the planken bridge,

  Again I warn ye o’ summat.

  Ye slip not on the slippery ridge

  Of the thawin’ snow, or it’ll be

  A long put-back to your gran’ marridge,

  I’m tellin’ ye.

  Nay, are ter scared o’ summat?

  In kep the thick black curtains drawn,

  Am I not tellin’ thee summat?

  Against the knockin’ of sevenfold dawn,

  An’ red-tipped candles from morn to morn

  Have dipped an’ danced upon thy brawn

  Till thou art worn —

  Oh, I have cost thee summat.

  Look in the mirror an’ see thy-sen,

  — What, I am showin’ thee summat.

  Wasted an’ wan tha sees thy-sen.

  An’ thy hand that holds the mirror shakes

  Till tha drops the glass and tha shudders when

  Thy luck breaks.

  Sure, tha’rt afraid o’ summat.

  Frail thou art, my saucy man,

  — Listen, I’m tellin’ thee summat.

  Tottering and tired thou art, my man,

  Tha came to say good-bye to me.

  An’ tha’s done it so well, that now I can

  Part wn’ thee.

  — Master, I’m givin’ thee summat.

  THE SCHOOLMASTER

  I

  A SNOWY DAY IN SCHOOL

  All the slow school hours, round the irregular hum of

  the class,

  Have pressed immeasurable spaces of hoarse silence

  Muffling my mind, as snow muffles the sounds that pass

  Down the soiled street. We have pattered the lessons

  ceaselessly —

  But the faces of the boys, in the brooding, yellow light

  Have shone for me like a crowded constellation of stars.

  Like full-blown flowers dimly shaking at the night,

  Like floating froth on an ebbing shore in the moon.

  Out of each star, dark, strange beams that disquiet:

  In the open depths of each flower, dark restless drops:

  Twin bubbles, shadow-full of mystery and challenge in

  the foam’s whispering riot:

  — How can I answer the challenge of so many eyes!

  The thick snow is crumpled on the roof, it plunges down

  Awfully. Must I call back those hundred eyes? — A voice

  Wakes from the hum, faltering about a noun —

  My question! My God, I must break from this hoarse silence

  That rustles beyond the stars to me. — There,

  Ihave startled a hundred eyes, and I must look

  Them an answer back. It is more than I can bear.

  The snow descends as if the dull sky shook

  In flakes of shadow down; and through the gap

  Between the ruddy schools sweeps one black rook.

  The rough snowball in the playground stands huge and still

  With fair flakes settling down on it. — Beyond, the town

  Is lost in the shadowed silence the skies distil.

  And all things are possessed by silence, and they can brood

  Wrapped up in the sky’s dim space of hoarse silence

  Earnestly — and oh for me this class is a bitter rood.

  II

  THE BEST OF SCHOOL

  The blinds are drawn because of the sun,

  And the boys an
d the room in a colourless gloom

  Of under- water float: bright ripples run

  Across the walls as the blinds are blown

  To let the sunlight in; and I,

  As I sit on the beach of the class alone.

  Watch the boys in their summer blouses,

  As they write, their round heads busily bowed:

  And one after another rouses

  And lifts his face and looks at me,

  And my eyes meet his very quietly,

  Then he turns again to his work, with glee.

  With glee he turns, with a little glad

  Ecstasy of work he turns from me.

  An ecstasy surely sweet to be had.

  And very sweet while the sunlight waves

  In the fresh of the morning, it is to be

  A teacher of these young boys, my slaves

  Only as swallows are slaves to the eaves

  They build upon, as mice are slaves

  To the man who threshes and sows the sheaves.

  Oh, sweet it is

  To feel the lads’ looks light on me.

  Then back in a swift, bright flutter to work,

  As birds who are stealing turn and flee.

  Touch after touch I feel on me

  As their eyes glance at me for the grain

  Of rigour they taste delightedly.

  And all the class.

  As tendrils reached out yearningly

  Slowly rotate till they touch the tree

  That they cleave unto, that they leap along

  Up to their lives — so they to me.

  So do they cleave and cling to me,

  So I lead them up, so do they twine

  Me up, caress and clothe with free

  Fine foliage of lives this life of mine;

  The lowest stem of this life of mine,

  The old hard stem of my life

  That bears aloft towards rarer skies

  My top of life, that buds on high

  Amid the high wind’s enterprise.

  They all do clothe my ungrowing life

  With a rich, a thrilled young clasp of life;

  A clutch of attachment, like parenthood,

  Mounts up to my heart, and I find it good.

  And I lift my head upon the troubled tangled world, and though the pain

  Of living my life were doubled, I still have this to comfort and sustain,

  I have such swarming sense of lives at the base of me, such sense of lives

  Clustering upon me, reaching up, as each after the other strives

  To follow my life aloft to the fine wild air of life and the storm of thought,

  And though I scarcely see the boys, or know that they are there, distraught

  As I am with living my life in earnestness, still progressively and alone,

  Though they cling, forgotten the most part, not companions, scarcely known

  To me — yet still because of the sense of their closeness clinging densely to me.

  And slowly fingering up my stem and following all tinily

  The way that I have gone and now am leading, they are dear to me.

  They keep me assored, and when my soul feels lonely.

  All mistrustful of thrusting its shoots where only

  I alone am living, then it keeps

  Me comforted to feel the warmth that creeps

  Up dimly from their striving; it heartens my strife:

  And when my heart is chill with loneliness,

  Then comforts it the creeping tenderness

  Of all the strays of life that climb my life.

  III

  AFTERNOON IN SCHOOL

  THE LAST LESSON

  When will the bell ring, and end this weariness?

  How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart

  My pack of unruly hounds: I cannot start

  Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt,

  I can haul them and urge them no more.

  No more can I endure to bear the brunt

  Of the books that lie out on the desks: a full three score

  Of several insults of blotted pages and scrawl

  Of slovenly work that they have offered me.

  I am sick, and tired more than any thrall

  Upon the woodstacks working weariedly.

  And shall I take

  The last dear fuel and heap it on my soul

  Till I rouse my will like a fire to consume

  Their dross of indifference, and burn the scroll

  Of their insults in punishment? — I will not!

  I will not waste myself to embers for them,

  Not all for them shall the fires of my life be hot,

  For myself a heap of ashes of weariness, till sleep

  Shall have raked the embers clear: I will keep

  Some of my strength for myself, for if I should sell

  It all for them, I should hate them —

  — I will sit and wait for the bell.

  AMORES

  CONTENTS

  TEASE

  THE WILD COMMON

  STUDY

  DISCORD IN CHILDHOOD

  VIRGIN YOUTH

  MONOLOGUE OF A MOTHER

  IN A BOAT

  WEEK-NIGHT SERVICE

  IRONY

  DREAMS OLD AND NASCENT

  OLD

  DREAMS OLD AND NASCENT

  NASCENT

  A WINTER’S TALE

  EPILOGUE

  A BABY RUNNING BAREFOOT

  DISCIPLINE

  SCENT OF IRISES

  THE PROPHET

  LAST WORDS TO MIRIAM

  MYSTERY

  PATIENCE

  BALLAD OF ANOTHER OPHELIA

  RESTLESSNESS

  A BABY ASLEEP AFTER PAIN

  ANXIETY

  THE PUNISHER

  THE END

  THE BRIDE

  THE VIRGIN MOTHER

  AT THE WINDOW

  DRUNK

  SORROW

  DOLOR OF AUTUMN

  THE INHERITANCE

  SILENCE

  LISTENING

  BROODING GRIEF

  LOTUS HURT BY THE COLD

  MALADE

  LIAISON

  TROTH WITH THE DEAD

  DISSOLUTE

  SUBMERGENCE

  THE ENKINDLED SPRING

  REPROACH

  THE HANDS OF THE BETROTHED

  EXCURSION

  PERFIDY

  A SPIRITUAL WOMAN

  MATING

  A LOVE SONG

  BROTHER AND SISTER

  AFTER MANY DAYS

  BLUE

  SNAP-DRAGON

  A PASSING BELL

  IN TROUBLE AND SHAME

  ELEGY

  GREY EVENING

  FIRELIGHT AND NIGHTFALL

  THE MYSTIC BLUE

  Lawrence, 1906, whilst working as a school teacher

  TEASE

  I WILL give you all my keys,

  You shall be my châtelaine,

  You shall enter as you please,

  As you please shall go again.

  When I hear you jingling through

  All the chambers of my soul,

  How I sit and laugh at you

  In your vain housekeeping rôle.

  Jealous of the smallest cover,

  Angry at the simplest door;

  Well, you anxious, inquisitive lover,

  Are you pleased with what’s in store?

  You have fingered all my treasures,

  Have you not, most curiously,

  Handled all my tools and measures

  And masculine machinery?

  Over every single beauty

  You have had your little rapture;

  You have slain, as was your duty,

  Every sin-mouse you could capture.

  Still you are not satisfied,

  Still you tremble faint reproach;

  Challenge me I keep aside

  Secrets that you may not broa
ch.

  Maybe yes, and maybe no,

  Maybe there are secret places,

  Altars barbarous below,

  Elsewhere halls of high disgraces.

  Maybe yes, and maybe no,

  You may have it as you please,

  Since I choose to keep you so,

  Suppliant on your curious knees.

  THE WILD COMMON

  THE quick sparks on the gorse bushes are leaping,

  Little jets of sunlight-texture imitating flame;

  Above them, exultant, the pee-wits are sweeping:

  They are lords of the desolate wastes of sadness

  their screamings proclaim.

  Rabbits, handfuls of brown earth, lie Low-rounded on the mournful grass they have bitten down to the quick. Are they asleep? — Are they alive? — Now see, when I Move my arms the hill bursts and heaves under their spurting kick.

  The common flaunts bravely; but below, from the rushes Crowds of glittering king-cups surge to challenge the blossoming bushes; There the lazy streamlet pushes Its curious course mildly; here it wakes again, leaps, laughs, and gushes.

  Into a deep pond, an old sheep-dip, Dark, overgrown with willows, cool, with the brook ebbing through so slow, Naked on the steep, soft lip Of the bank I stand watching my own white shadow quivering to and fro.

  What if the gorse flowers shrivelled and kissing were lost? Without the pulsing waters, where were the marigolds and the songs of the brook? If my veins and my breasts with love embossed Withered, my insolent soul would be gone like flowers that the hot wind took.

 

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