I wonder, can the night go by; 
Can this shot arrow of travel fly 
Shaft-golden with light, sheer into the sky 
Of a dawned to-morrow, 
Without ever sleep delivering us
From each other, or loosing the dolorous 
Unfruitful sorrow! 

What is it then that you can see 
That at the window endlessly 
You watch the red sparks whirl and flee
And the night look through? 
Your presence peering lonelily there 
Oppresses me so, I can hardly bear 
To share the train with you. 

You hurt my heart-beats’ privacy;
I wish I could put you away from me; 
I suffocate in this intimacy, 
For all that I love you; 
How I have longed for this night in the train,
Yet now every fibre of me cries in pain
To God to remove you. 

But surely my soul’s best dream is still
That one night pouring down shall swill
Us away in an utter sleep, until 
We are one, smooth-rounded.
Yet closely bitten in to me 
Is this armour of stiff reluctancy 
That keeps me impounded. 

So, dear love, when another night 
Pours on us, lift your fingers white
And strip me naked, touch me light, 
Light, light all over. 
For I ache most earnestly for your touch,
Yet I cannot move, however much 
I would be your lover.

Night after night with a blemish of day 
Unblown and unblossomed has withered away;
Come another night, come a new night, say 
Will you pluck me apart? 
Will you open the amorous, aching bud
Of my body, and loose the burning flood 
That would leap to you from my heart? 

Added: Mar 18 2005 | Viewed: 637 times | Comments (0)

Poet: D.H. Lawrence
Poem: Excursion

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