Yesterday on University Challenge the writer D.H. Lawrence came up as an answer and I felt it was time to explore some of his works.
As it so happens, it is the 1st of December and I found an intriguing and apt little poem called A Winter's Poem.
Yesterday the fields were only grey with scattered snow,
And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge;
Yet her deep footsteps mark the snow, and go
On towards the pines at the hills’ white verge.
I cannot see her, since the mist’s white scarf
Obscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky;
But she’s waiting, I know, impatient and cold, half
Sobs struggling into her frosty sigh.
Why does she come so promptly, when she must know
That she’s only the nearer to the inevitable farewell;
The hill is steep, on the snow my steps are slow—
Why does she come, when she knows what I have to tell?
The first thing you might wonder is, who is the woman? This question is brought about due to Lawrence's exophoric references; she is only referred to through the pronouns and possessive determiners 'she', 'her' and 'her'. By using the possessive determiner to first introduce her, Lawrence presents the action of making footprints as already in the past, as presumably is the relationship between the narrator and the woman.
The poem is set out with little hope from the start. The colour 'grey' denotes a lack of life and action. The life of the 'longest grass-leaves' has been quashed and concealed by snow, blanketing the past and the future. The snow, therefore, represents the narrator's memory, as she ahs made her footprints in it, with the adjective 'deep' conveying a longstanding aspect to the relationship, perhaps even a scarring one.
To me, the 'dull orange sky' is a hint to the fact that this once was a relationship between lovers (Lawrence did have such a one which lasted until the ends of winter) because it implies that the orange has faded from red, the colour of passion. Thus this passion has dimmed and therefore the narrator has to 'tell' her of this. However, the orange surrounds and conceals her, so perhaps she comes 'promptly' because her passion has faded quicker than his has and she has the same thing to tell; he goes with 'slow' steps, signifying a reluctance due to a remaining attachment. Perhaps this is the conclusion Lawrence wants us to come to when he asks the final rhetorical questions. This is enhanced by the 'frosty sobs' - passion would be symbolised by fire, so her heart is no longer ablaze as it once was. Yet she is still sobbing...or is she?
The narrator cannot see her, yet he thinks he knows she is sobbing; maybe he does not assume that she has experienced the same dwindling of love that he has.
I shall definitely return to this poet, also as an author. He went through the war and wrote about that in detail as he was ill and in sanatoriums, so I'd like to read more on that part of his life.
As it so happens, it is the 1st of December and I found an intriguing and apt little poem called A Winter's Poem.
Yesterday the fields were only grey with scattered snow,
And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge;
Yet her deep footsteps mark the snow, and go
On towards the pines at the hills’ white verge.
I cannot see her, since the mist’s white scarf
Obscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky;
But she’s waiting, I know, impatient and cold, half
Sobs struggling into her frosty sigh.
Why does she come so promptly, when she must know
That she’s only the nearer to the inevitable farewell;
The hill is steep, on the snow my steps are slow—
Why does she come, when she knows what I have to tell?
The first thing you might wonder is, who is the woman? This question is brought about due to Lawrence's exophoric references; she is only referred to through the pronouns and possessive determiners 'she', 'her' and 'her'. By using the possessive determiner to first introduce her, Lawrence presents the action of making footprints as already in the past, as presumably is the relationship between the narrator and the woman.
The poem is set out with little hope from the start. The colour 'grey' denotes a lack of life and action. The life of the 'longest grass-leaves' has been quashed and concealed by snow, blanketing the past and the future. The snow, therefore, represents the narrator's memory, as she ahs made her footprints in it, with the adjective 'deep' conveying a longstanding aspect to the relationship, perhaps even a scarring one.
To me, the 'dull orange sky' is a hint to the fact that this once was a relationship between lovers (Lawrence did have such a one which lasted until the ends of winter) because it implies that the orange has faded from red, the colour of passion. Thus this passion has dimmed and therefore the narrator has to 'tell' her of this. However, the orange surrounds and conceals her, so perhaps she comes 'promptly' because her passion has faded quicker than his has and she has the same thing to tell; he goes with 'slow' steps, signifying a reluctance due to a remaining attachment. Perhaps this is the conclusion Lawrence wants us to come to when he asks the final rhetorical questions. This is enhanced by the 'frosty sobs' - passion would be symbolised by fire, so her heart is no longer ablaze as it once was. Yet she is still sobbing...or is she?
The narrator cannot see her, yet he thinks he knows she is sobbing; maybe he does not assume that she has experienced the same dwindling of love that he has.
I shall definitely return to this poet, also as an author. He went through the war and wrote about that in detail as he was ill and in sanatoriums, so I'd like to read more on that part of his life.
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