A Spiritual Woman
CLOSE your eyes, my love, let me make you blind;They have taught you to seeOnly a mean arithmetic on the face of things,A cunning algebra in the faces of men,And God like geometryCompleting his circles, and working cleverly.
I'll kiss you over the eyes till I kiss you blind;If I can--if any one could.Then perhaps in the dark you'll have got what youwant to find.You've discovered so many bits, with your clevereyes,And I'm a kaleidoscopeThat you shake and shake, and yet it won't come toyour mind.Now stop carping at me.--But God, how I hate you!Do you fear I shall swindle you?Do you think if you take me as I am, that that willabate youSomehow?--so sad, so intrinsic, so spiritual, yet socautious, youMust have me all in your will and your consciousness--I hate you.
Words in this poem
- cleverly adv.
- In a clever manner.
- carping a.
- Fault-finding; censorious caviling. See Captious.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Spiritual Woman is in the public domain. This text is taken from Amores: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22531; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: D. H. Lawrence, A Spiritual Woman, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/a-spiritual-woman.html, id L13589.
Form and metre
A Spiritual Woman is 23 lines in 2 stanzas. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 A-BA---BABB-B-B-B blindA · could · youB · findA · clever · eyes · kaleidoscope · toB · mindA · youB · youB · will · youB · so · youB · consciousness · youB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| CLOSE your eyes, my love, let me make you blind; | 10 | ·········· |
| They have taught you to see | 6 | ······ |
| Only a mean arithmetic on the face of things, | 13 | /˘···˘/˘····· |
| A cunning algebra in the faces of men, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·· |
| And God like geometry | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| Completing his circles, and working cleverly. | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| I'll kiss you over the eyes till I kiss you blind; | 11 | ··········· |
| If I can--if any one could. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Then perhaps in the dark you'll have got what you | 11 | ·˘/········ |
| want to find. | 3 | ··· |
| You've discovered so many bits, with your clever | 11 | ·˘/˘·/···/˘ |
| eyes, | 1 | · |
| And I'm a kaleidoscope | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| That you shake and shake, and yet it won't come to | 11 | ··········· |
| your mind. | 2 | ·· |
| Now stop carping at me.--But God, how I hate you! | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Do you fear I shall swindle you? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Do you think if you take me as I am, that that will | 13 | ············· |
| abate you | 3 | ˘/· |
| Somehow?--so sad, so intrinsic, so spiritual, yet so | 13 | /····˘/˘·/˘·· |
| cautious, you | 3 | /˘· |
| Must have me all in your will and your consciousness-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I hate you. | 3 | ··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.