Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930). New Poems. 1916.

30. Everlasting Flowers

WHO do you think stands watching

The snow-tops shining rosy

In heaven, now that the darkness

Takes all but the tallest posy?

Who then sees the two-winged

Boat down there, all alone

And asleep on the snow’s last shadow,

Like a moth on a stone?

The olive-leaves, light as gad-flies,

Have all gone dark, gone black.

And now in the dark my soul to you

Turns back.

To you, my little darling,

To you, out of Italy.

For what is loveliness, my love,

Save you have it with me!

So, there’s an oxen wagon

Comes darkly into sight:

A man with a lantern, swinging

A little light.

What does he see, my darling

Here by the darkened lake?

Here, in the sloping shadow

The mountains make?

He says not a word, but passes,

Staring at what he sees.

What ghost of us both do you think he saw

Under the olive trees?

All the things that are lovely—

The things you never knew—

I wanted to gather them one by one

And bring them to you.

But never now, my darling

Can I gather the mountain-tips

From the twilight like half-shut lilies

To hold to your lips.

And never the two-winged vessel

That sleeps below on the lake

Can I catch like a moth between my hands

For you to take.

But hush, I am not regretting:

It is far more perfect now.

I’ll whisper the ghostly truth to the world

And tell them how

I know you here in the darkness,

How you sit in the throne of my eyes

At peace, and look out of the windows

In glad surprise.