The Hands Of The Betrothed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BABA ACAC ADAD EFEF BABA GHGH IBIB JKJK LALA IMIM| Her tawny eyes are onyx of thoughtlessness | A |
| Hardened they are like gems in ancient modesty | B |
| Yea and her mouth's prudent and crude caress | A |
| Means even less than her many words to me | B |
| - | |
| Though her kiss betrays me also this this only | B |
| Consolation that in her lips her blood at climax clips | A |
| Two wild dumb paws in anguish on the lonely | B |
| Fruit of my heart ere down rebuked it slips | A |
| - | |
| I know from her hardened lips that still her heart is | A |
| Hungry for me yet if I put my hand in her breast | C |
| She puts me away like a saleswoman whose mart is | A |
| Endangered by the pilferer on his quest | C |
| - | |
| But her hands are still the woman the large strong hands | A |
| Heavier than mine yet like leverets caught in steel | D |
| When I hold them my still soul understands | A |
| Their dumb confession of what her sort must feel | D |
| - | |
| For never her hands come nigh me but they lift | E |
| Like heavy birds from the morning stubble to settle | F |
| Upon me like sleeping birds like birds that shift | E |
| Uneasily in their sleep disturbing my mettle | F |
| - | |
| How caressingly she lays her hand on my knee | B |
| How strangely she tries to disown it as it sinks | A |
| In my flesh and bone and forages into me | B |
| How it stirs like a subtle stoat whatever she thinks | A |
| - | |
| And often I see her clench her fingers tight | G |
| And thrust her fists suppressed in the folds of her skirt | H |
| And sometimes how she grasps her arms with her bright | G |
| Big hands as if surely her arms did hurt | H |
| - | |
| And I have seen her stand all unaware | I |
| Pressing her spread hands over her breasts as she | B |
| Would crush their mounds on her heart to kill in there | I |
| The pain that is her simple ache for me | B |
| - | |
| Her strong hands take my part the part of a man | J |
| To her she crushes them into her bosom deep | K |
| Where I should lie and with her own strong span | J |
| Closes her arms that should fold me in sleep | K |
| - | |
| Ah and she puts her hands upon the wall | L |
| Presses them there and kisses her bright hands | A |
| Then lets her black hair loose the darkness fall | L |
| About her from her maiden folded bands | A |
| - | |
| And sits in her own dark night of her bitter hair | I |
| Dreaming God knows of what for to me she's the same | M |
| Betrothed young lady who loves me and takes care | I |
| Of her womanly virtue and of my good name | M |
D. H. Lawrence (david Herbert Richards)
(1)
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