Submergence
WHEN along the pavement,Palpitating flames of life,People flicker round me,I forget my bereavement,The gap in the great constellation,The place where a star used to be.
Nay, though the pole-starIs blown out like a candle,And all the heavens are wandering in disarray,Yet when pleiads of people areDeployed around me, and I seeThe street's long outstretched Milky Way,
When people flicker down the pavement,I forget my bereavement.
Words in this poem
- flicker v. i.
- To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. [OE. flikeren, flekeren, to flutter, AS. flicerian, flicorian, cf. D. flikkeren to sparkle. Flacker.]
- bereavement n.
- The state of being bereaved; deprivation; esp., the loss of a relative by death.
- disarray v. t.
- To throw into disorder; to break the array of. [Pref. dis- + array, v.: cf. OF. desarroyer, desarreier.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Submergence 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, Submergence, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/submergence.html, id L13583.
Form and metre
Submergence is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 1 --A--A pavement · life · meA · bereavement · constellation · beA
- 2 A-BA-B starA · candle · disarrayB · areA · see · wayB
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. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN along the pavement, | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| Palpitating flames of life, | 7 | /˘˘˘··· |
| People flicker round me, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| I forget my bereavement, | 7 | ·˘/·˘/˘ |
| The gap in the great constellation, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The place where a star used to be. | 8 | ········ |
| Nay, though the pole-star | 5 | ····· |
| Is blown out like a candle, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And all the heavens are wandering in disarray, | 12 | ···/˘·/˘··˘/ |
| Yet when pleiads of people are | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Deployed around me, and I see | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| The street's long outstretched Milky Way, | 9 | ···˘/˘/˘· |
| When people flicker down the pavement, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| I forget my bereavement. | 7 | ·˘/·˘/˘ |
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.