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Perfidy by D. H. Lawrence

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A man stands outside a woman's door, waiting for her return, but instead, he sees her sneak back from a secret meeting, slipping inside without realizing he’s watching.

Poet
D. H. Lawrence
Core theme
Betrayal
The PoemFull text

Perfidy

D. H. Lawrence

HOLLOW rang the house when I knocked on the door, And I lingered on the threshold with my hand Upraised to knock and knock once more: Listening for the sound of her feet across the floor, Hollow re-echoed my heart. The low-hung lamps stretched down the road With shadows drifting underneath, With a music of soft, melodious feet Quickening my hope as I hastened to meet The low-hung light of her eyes. The golden lamps down the street went out, The last car trailed the night behind; And I in the darkness wandered about With a flutter of hope and of dark-shut doubt In the dying lamp of my love. Two brown ponies trotting slowly Stopped at a dim-lit trough to drink: The dark van drummed down the distance slowly; While the city stars so dim and holy Drew nearer to search through the streets. A hastening car swept shameful past, I saw her hid in the shadow, I saw her step to the curb, and fast Run to the silent door, where last I had stood with my hand uplifted. She clung to the door in her haste to enter, Entered, and quickly cast It shut behind her, leaving the street aghast.

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

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§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A man stands outside a woman's door, waiting for her return, but instead, he sees her sneak back from a secret meeting, slipping inside without realizing he’s watching. The poem captures that heart-wrenching moment of discovering that someone you love has been unfaithful. Lawrence unfolds the entire story on a cold, quiet night in the city.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. HOLLOW rang the house when I knocked on the door, / And I lingered on the threshold with my hand

    Editor's note

    The speaker knocks but doesn't get a response. The word "hollow" serves a dual purpose: the house echoes with emptiness, and his heart feels that same void. He's already on edge before he knows anything for sure — that lingering hollow sensation suggests this isn't the first time he's found himself waiting.

  2. The low-hung lamps stretched down the road / With shadows drifting underneath,

    Editor's note

    He steps out the door and strolls down the street, feeling hope replace dread. The street lamps glow softly, and he picks up distant footsteps that he wishes were hers. The "music of soft, melodious feet" illustrates how desire transforms everything—ordinary street sounds turn into something beautiful simply because he longs for her presence.

  3. The golden lamps down the street went out, / The last car trailed the night behind;

    Editor's note

    Time moves on. The lamps extinguish one by one, the last tram or car vanishes, and the city becomes quiet. His hope remains, though it flickers — Lawrence refers to it as "the dying lamp of my love," reflecting the lamps that are dimming around him. The "dark-shut doubt" is what he's striving to avoid thinking about.

  4. Two brown ponies trotting slowly / Stopped at a dim-lit trough to drink:

    Editor's note

    This stanza brings everything to a halt. The ponies, the van in the distance, the faint stars over the city — it creates a quiet, almost tender moment. However, the description of the stars searching through the streets adds a watchful, judgmental feel to the stillness. It’s as if the world is holding its breath, anticipating what’s coming next.

  5. A hastening car swept shameful past, / I saw her hid in the shadow,

    Editor's note

    The blow lands here. A car rushes by — Lawrence calls it "shameful" even before he explains why — and the speaker spots her hiding in its shadow, then quickly moving to the very door where he had been knocking. She has no clue he's watching. She slips inside and shuts the door, leaving the street, and him, in stunned silence. "Leaving the street aghast" reflects his own shock onto the entire scene — the street feels it because he can barely articulate it himself.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone shifts slowly and painfully from anxious hope to quiet devastation. Lawrence maintains a controlled, observational voice — there are no outbursts or accusations. This restraint intensifies the impact of the ending. The nighttime city backdrop creates a cold, lonely atmosphere, while the rhythms evoke the feeling of someone pacing: restless, repetitive, and unable to stop. By the final stanza, the tone feels stunned, almost numb — the word "aghast" comes closest to conveying raw emotion, yet it's projected onto the street rather than felt by the speaker himself.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

The hollow house
The empty, echoing house reflects the emotional emptiness the speaker feels even before he has any evidence. It gives shape to his inner dread — the house feels hollow because his relationship is hollow.
The street lamps going out
The lamps fading out one by one reflect the slow loss of the speaker's hope. Lawrence makes this connection clear by referring to his love as "the dying lamp" in that same stanza.
The hastening car
The car that picks her up is called "shameful" before any details are shared. It symbolizes the secret life she’s been leading — quick, sneaky, racing through the night.
The door
The door shows up at both the beginning and the end of the poem. Initially, the speaker stands in front of it, feeling hopeful as she knocks. By the end, she holds onto it tightly and closes it behind her. This door symbolizes the divide between her perception of their relationship and the reality she has come to understand.
The city stars
Stars often symbolize the eternal or the romantic, but in this context, they are "dim and holy," portrayed as searching through the streets. They come across more as witnesses or judges rather than as sources of comfort or beauty.

§06Historical context

Historical context

D. H. Lawrence penned this poem in the early 1900s, a time when he was deeply influenced by his own tumultuous emotions. Coming from the working class in the English Midlands, he reached adulthood during the Edwardian era, an age marked by rigid social norms around relationships and fidelity. The poetry he wrote during this time, later compiled into collections like *Amores* (1916), is highly autobiographical and often delves into the pain and power dynamics present in romantic relationships. He drew inspiration from Thomas Hardy's urban realism and the Imagist movement, which emphasized vivid, sensory details over vague concepts. The setting of *Perfidy* — a gaslit street at night, ponies at a trough, and trams fading into the darkness — mirrors the industrial English city of his youth. The poem fits into a tradition of lyric poetry that resembles dramatic monologue, where a single intense moment of revelation conveys the entire emotional depth of a story.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

What does 'perfidy' mean?

Perfidy refers to a conscious betrayal of trust, stemming from the Latin word perfidia, which translates to faithlessness. Lawrence selected a formal, nearly legal term for the title, setting a tone of detached judgment before the poem even starts.

Who is the speaker and who is the woman?

The speaker is a man waiting for a woman he loves — likely a romantic partner. Lawrence avoids naming either character, which adds to the poem's universal appeal. While many readers associate it with Lawrence's own early relationships, the poem stands alone as a compelling dramatic scene.

Does the woman know she's been seen?

No — that’s a crucial aspect of why the ending feels so heartbreaking. She returns home, unaware that she's been seen. The speaker remains silent, saying nothing. The betrayal is total, and she has no idea he was there to witness it.

Why does Lawrence call the car 'shameful'?

He places the moral judgment on the car itself instead of saying it outright. This approach helps express the speaker's shock and disgust without him having to articulate it directly. The car is deemed "shameful" due to its role in bringing her back from a place she shouldn't have been.

What is the effect of the repeated word 'hollow'?

"Hollow" is used in the first stanza to capture both the sound of the house and the speaker's emotional state. This word establishes the poem's emotional framework: the outer world and inner feelings reflect one another. The emptiness he perceives is the same emptiness he is on the verge of fully grasping.

Why does Lawrence include the ponies and the van? They seem random.

They slow the poem down, creating a pause before the final revelation—much like the moment of silence before receiving bad news. This also anchors the poem in a specific, everyday urban setting, making the emotional impact feel more genuine. Life continues on, indifferent, as the speaker's world is on the brink of collapse.

What does 'leaving the street aghast' mean at the end?

The speaker projects his shock onto the street—a technique known as personification or transferred epithet. Instead of saying "I was aghast," he claims the street was. This method illustrates that the emotion feels too overwhelming to claim directly, creating a haunting, cinematic image at the end of the poem.

Is this poem in a fixed form, like a sonnet?

No — it's written in free verse, featuring some loose rhyme and repetition, but it doesn't follow a strict metrical scheme. Lawrence incorporates recurring sounds and phrases (such as the echo of "hollow" and the image of the door that keeps coming back) to establish structure while avoiding a formal pattern. This approach lends the poem a sense of natural speech under pressure.

Citation

Cite this poem

MLA

Lawrence, D. H. "Perfidy." Storgy, https://storgy.com/poems/perfidy-d-h-lawrence/.

APA

Lawrence, D. H. (n.d.). Perfidy. Storgy. https://storgy.com/poems/perfidy-d-h-lawrence/

TeacherAP Lit Q1 scaffold — preview

Row A — Thesis

1 pt

In 'Perfidy,' D. H. Lawrence uses accumulating imagery of hollow spaces and dying light to dramatize how romantic betrayal does not arrive as a single blow but as a slow, nauseating revelation that unmasks the lover's own capacity for …

  • Row B — Evidence + Commentary4 pts
  • Row C — Sophistication1 pt
  • Common student errors
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