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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WILD COMMON, by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The quick sparks on the gorse-bushes are leaping Last Line: Owning my supple body a rare glad thing, supremely good. Alternate Author Name(s): Lawrence, D. H. | |||
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. So my soul like a passionate woman turns, Filled with remorseful terror to the man she scorned, and her love For myself in my own eyes' laughter burns, Runs ecstatic over the pliant folds rippling down to my belly from the breast-lights above. Over my sunlit skin the warm, clinging air, Rich with the songs of seven larks singing at once, goes kissing me glad. And the soul of the wind and my blood compare Their wandering happiness, and the wind, wasted in liberty, drifts on and is sad. Oh but the water loves me and folds me, Plays with me, sways me, lifts me and sinks me as though it were living blood, Blood of a heaving woman who holds me, Owning my supple body a rare glad thing, supremely good. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BABY RUNNING BAREFOOT by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE BAVARIAN GENTIANS by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE BROODING GRIEF by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE DREAMS OLD AND NASCENT: NASCENT by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE GLOIRE DE DIJON by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE PIANO by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE PICCADILLY CIRCUS AT NIGHT: STREETWALKERS by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE SNAKE by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE SORROW by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE THE BRIDE by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE |
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