Night Poem From Khandro (Thu.)

[Khandro]

Don't you care for my love? she said bitterly.

I handed her the mirror, and said:
Please address these questions to the proper person!
Please make all requests to head-quarters!
In all matters of emotional importance
please approach the supreme authority direct! -

So I handed her the mirror.
And she would have broken it over my head,
but she caught sight of her own reflection
and that held her spellbound for two seconds
while I fled.

 

Intimates. D H Lawrence

[jourdain2]

Not a Lawrence I know, Khandro.  It's quite a conundrum and the second half  is so  very much different in  tone and structure that it shocks as you read it.  Somehow you are expecting the depth and analysis of the first part.

Then it smashes you over the head - as he suggests the mirror could be broken.

Is it an extension of his eternal theme of the barrier between expectation of love of the sexes, as expressed in 'Women  In Love' do you think?

[Zacs-Master]

It's about questioning yourself rather than seeking an answer from someone else. Facing up to our own shortcomings / problems can be the most challenging thing to do. 

[jourdain2]

Yes, Z-M, I think we are both right.  The 'barrier' I suggested.

 

[JimF]

It's an excellent poem. Interesting interpretation here:
http://tolovetohonortocherish-dhlawrenc.weebly.com/intimates-an-interpretation.html

[jourdain2]

Yes, Jim.  Very interesting interpretation.

[Khandro]

Yes, I agree with Zacs.

Did you know Lawrence was not only a good writer & poet, but he was quite a good painter as well ?

I once stayed at a hotel in Taos, New Mexico https://www.lafondataos.com/

Where he had stayed and they had several of his paintings in the lobby. My room was in one of those windows above the entrance and throughout the evening & night, there was held, in the small square outside, a 'Bible Marathon' - a verbal reading of the bible from Genesis to Revelation, passed from hand to hand.