A LOVE SONG by D. H. Lawrence: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A speaker talks to a lover who isn’t there, confessing that the details of their presence have blurred over time—their voice, their gaze—but seeing apple blossoms illuminated by moonlight brings the lover rushing back with overwhelming intensity.
The poem
REJECT me not if I should say to you I do forget the sounding of your voice, I do forget your eyes that searching through The mists perceive our marriage, and rejoice. Yet, when the apple-blossom opens wide Under the pallid moonlight's fingering, I see your blanched face at my breast, and hide My eyes from diligent work, malingering. Ah, then, upon my bedroom I do draw The blind to hide the garden, where the moon Enjoys the open blossoms as they straw Their beauty for his taking, boon for boon. And I do lift my aching arms to you, And I do lift my anguished, avid breast, And I do weep for very pain of you, And fling myself at the doors of sleep, for rest. And I do toss through the troubled night for you, Dreaming your yielded mouth is given to mine, Feeling your strong breast carry me on into The peace where sleep is stronger even than wine.
A speaker talks to a lover who isn’t there, confessing that the details of their presence have blurred over time—their voice, their gaze—but seeing apple blossoms illuminated by moonlight brings the lover rushing back with overwhelming intensity. The poem follows a restless night: the speaker pulls down the blind against the garden, feels a deep yearning, and ultimately gives in to dreaming of the lover’s embrace, the only way to find rest. It explores how desire can still ache even without a vivid memory.
Line-by-line
REJECT me not if I should say to you / I do forget the sounding of your voice,
Yet, when the apple-blossom opens wide / Under the pallid moonlight's fingering,
Ah, then, upon my bedroom I do draw / The blind to hide the garden,
And I do lift my aching arms to you, / And I do lift my anguished, avid breast,
And I do toss through the troubled night for you, / Dreaming your yielded mouth is given to mine,
Tone & mood
The tone is aching and confessional, yet it avoids self-pity. Lawrence maintains honesty with terms like "malingering," revealing a dry self-awareness beneath the longing. The repeated "And I do" phrase adds a ceremonial weight to the second half, reminiscent of someone performing a private ritual of grief. By the end, the mood transitions from restless pain to a sense of exhausted surrender.
Symbols & metaphors
- Apple blossoms — The blossoms represent fleeting beauty and desire, but Lawrence adds an erotic twist — they open fully under the moon's touch, reflecting the physical closeness the speaker longs for. Their white color also resonates with the lover's "blanched face."
- The moon — The moon plays the role of a lover in the garden, delighting in the beauty of the blossoms while the speaker remains shut inside alone. Its "fingering" light has a sensual quality, intensifying the speaker's sense of exclusion.
- The blind — Pulling down the blind is a self-protective move that ultimately backfires. It shows the speaker trying to manage their desire by blocking out the trigger, but the feeling of longing doesn't rely on seeing the garden to persist.
- Sleep — Sleep serves as both an escape and a reunion. The speaker throws themselves at it like a door, and once inside, they discover their lover waiting in a dream. It’s the only place where absence can be momentarily mended.
- The lifted arms and breast — The physical gesture of lifting arms toward someone who isn't there is one of the poem's clearest expressions of longing — the body performing a reunion that can't take place in reality.
Historical context
D. H. Lawrence wrote this poem in the early twentieth century, a time when he was dealing with intense and often tumultuous relationships, culminating in his elopement with Frieda Weekley in 1912. He had a deep fascination with the life of the body and the unconscious, concepts he would explore more fully in novels like *Sons and Lovers* and *Women in Love*. His early poetry, found in collections such as *Love Poems and Others* (1913), is heavily influenced by his personal experiences and tends to depict desire as a physical and almost elemental force, rather than just a refined romantic feeling. The Edwardian era, in which this poem was written, was characterized by strict social conventions surrounding sexuality, which lends Lawrence's candid exploration of bodily desire a subtly rebellious quality. You can see the influence of earlier lyric traditions — like the sonnet and the love complaint — in the poem's formal structure, even as Lawrence challenges their conventionality.
FAQ
The speaker is reaching out to a lover who isn't present — someone they are apart from due to distance or other circumstances. The poem avoids naming the lover or detailing the reasons for their separation, allowing the emphasis to remain on the emotional and physical sensation of longing instead of the backstory.
This is a candid acknowledgment that the speaker's conscious, deliberate memory has faded — they can no longer easily recall a vivid mental picture of their lover. However, the poem quickly reveals that involuntary, sensory memories (awakened by the blossoms and moonlight) remain vibrant. Lawrence differentiates between the memory you can manage and the one that unexpectedly overwhelms you.
Malingering refers to pretending to be sick or unable to avoid responsibilities. Lawrence adds a hint of wry humor here: the speaker knows they're getting sidetracked from their work by thoughts of their lover, and the term reveals a sense of rueful self-awareness. This keeps the poem from slipping into pure sentimentality.
The moonlit apple blossoms bring back a painful image of the lost lover, prompting the speaker to pull down the blind to block the view. This is an effort to handle desire by changing the surroundings — but it fails, as the longing resides within, not just outside the window.
The repetition in those stanzas creates a litany-like feel—a structured, rhythmic list of actions reminiscent of a prayer or ritual. This slows down the poem and adds gravity to each expression of longing. It also reflects the unyielding, repetitive nature of desire: the same yearning playing out in the same ways, night after night.
Not quite. The poem consists of five quatrains (four-line stanzas) with a steady rhyme scheme and a rhythm that’s mostly iambic pentameter, putting it in line with the English love lyric tradition. However, it’s longer than a sonnet and doesn’t adhere to the sonnet's typical structure of argument and turn. Lawrence is loosely employing the formal conventions of the love poem as a framework for something more visceral.
"Boon" refers to a gift or blessing. The phrase "boon for boon" illustrates the relationship between the moon and the blossoms: the moon provides light, the blossoms offer their beauty, and both gain from this interaction. It's a mutually beneficial and generous exchange — precisely the kind of close giving that the speaker misses out on due to their lover's absence.
The ending isn’t a happy resolution; it’s more like a weary peace. The speaker eventually drifts into a dream where the lover is there in person, and sleep is portrayed as more powerful than wine — a complete surrender. The lover is truly present only in this unconscious state, creating a bittersweet feeling instead of comfort: the reunion feels genuine, but it vanishes upon waking.