The Enkindled Spring

The Enkindled Spring

Original Text
D. H. Lawrence, Amores: Poems (London: Duckworth, [1921]): 94. PR 6023 A93A7 Robarts Library
1This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
2Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
3Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
4Where the wood fumes up, and the flickering, watery rushes.
5I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
6Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
7Of growing, these sparks that puff in wild gyration,
8Faces of people streaming across my gaze.
9And I, what fountain of fire am I among
10This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
11About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
12Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.

Notes

2] emerald: "green-fire" in the 1928 Collected Poems. Back to Line
7] sparks: "smoke-puffs" in the 1928 Collected Poems. Back to Line
8] streaming: "blowing" in the 1928 Collected Poems. Back to Line
9] fountain: "sort" in the 1928 Collected Poems. Back to Line
10] The last three lines are revised by Lawrence in the 1928 Collected Poems as follows:
This conflagration of spring? the gap in it all!
Not even palish smoke like the rest of the throng.
Less than the wind that runs to the flamy call!
Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1921
Publication Notes
see Roberts A9
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2000.
Rhyme
abab