SCENT OF IRISES by D. H. Lawrence: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A teacher sits in a classroom, the scent of irises drawing him into memories of a past love — bright outdoor moments, a woman’s face glowing among wildflowers, and a relationship that flared up passionately before fading away.
The poem
A FAINT, sickening scent of irises Persists all morning. Here in a jar on the table A fine proud spike of purple irises Rising above the class-room litter, makes me unable To see the class's lifted and bended faces Save in a broken pattern, amid purple and gold and sable. I can smell the gorgeous bog-end, in its breathless Dazzle of may-blobs, when the marigold glare overcast you With fire on your cheeks and your brow and your chin as you dipped Your face in the marigold bunch, to touch and contrast you, Your own dark mouth with the bridal faint lady-smocks, Dissolved on the golden sorcery you should not outlast. You amid the bog-end's yellow incantation, You sitting in the cowslips of the meadow above, Me, your shadow on the bog-flame, flowery may-blobs, Me full length in the cowslips, muttering you love; You, your soul like a lady-smock, lost, evanescent, You with your face all rich, like the sheen of a dove. You are always asking, do I remember, remember The butter-cup bog-end where the flowers rose up And kindled you over deep with a cast of gold? You ask again, do the healing days close up The open darkness which then drew us in, The dark which then drank up our brimming cup. You upon the dry, dead beech-leaves, in the fire of night Burnt like a sacrifice; you invisible; Only the fire of darkness, and the scent of you! --And yes, thank God, it still is possible The healing days shall close the darkness up Wherein we fainted like a smoke or dew. Like vapour, dew, or poison. Now, thank God, The fire of night is gone, and your face is ash Indistinguishable on the grey, chill day; The night has burnt us out, at last the good Dark fire burns on untroubled, without clash Of you upon the dead leaves saying me Yea.
A teacher sits in a classroom, the scent of irises drawing him into memories of a past love — bright outdoor moments, a woman’s face glowing among wildflowers, and a relationship that flared up passionately before fading away. In the end, he feels a sense of relief that the shadow of that love has finally passed, even as the fragrance still lingers in his mind.
Line-by-line
A FAINT, sickening scent of irises / Persists all morning.
I can smell the gorgeous bog-end, in its breathless / Dazzle of may-blobs,
You amid the bog-end's yellow incantation, / You sitting in the cowslips of the meadow above,
You are always asking, do I remember, remember / The butter-cup bog-end where the flowers rose up
You upon the dry, dead beech-leaves, in the fire of night / Burnt like a sacrifice;
Like vapour, dew, or poison. Now, thank God, / The fire of night is gone,
Tone & mood
The tone shifts from uneasy and distracted at the beginning, to lush and almost hypnotic in the middle stanzas, then turns darker and more conflicted, finally settling into a quiet, exhausted relief. Lawrence doesn't glorify the past relationship — the beauty of those memories is genuine, but so is the hurt. The repeated "thank God" at the end feels heartfelt, not sarcastic.
Symbols & metaphors
- Irises — The irises in the classroom jar are the catalyst for everything. Their "sickening" scent evokes involuntary memories — how a smell can pull you back to a place you didn't intend to revisit. They also bring to mind a subtle connection to mourning and the flow of time.
- Wildflowers (may-blobs, cowslips, lady-smocks, marigolds) — The bog flowers aren't merely part of the scenery; they embody the woman herself. Their bright yellow, delicate paleness, and fleeting nature reflect her traits. The natural world serves as a way to express the essence of someone who eludes straightforward description.
- Fire / darkness — The "fire of night" and the "open darkness" represent the consuming and destructive aspects of the relationship. Fire, in this context, isn't about warmth or comfort; it incinerates, turns faces to ash, and renders the woman "invisible." The speaker's relief when the fire extinguishes is the emotional heart of the poem.
- Ash and dead leaves — Dead beech leaves and ash symbolize what’s left after passion has faded. The woman’s face turning to “ash / Indistinguishable on the grey, chill day” signifies both loss and freedom — she can no longer disturb him.
- The classroom — The classroom sets the stage for the entire poem, illustrating how the past intrudes into everyday working life in the present. It anchors the speaker in the role of teacher, a role that the memory briefly disrupts, highlighting just how strongly the past can overshadow the present.
Historical context
D. H. Lawrence wrote this poem in the early 1910s while he was teaching in Croydon, England—a job he found exhausting and limiting. Many poems from his early collections reflect that classroom experience and his complex emotional life during this time, particularly his grief over his mother’s death and his relationships with women before he met Frieda Weekley. "Scent of Irises" is part of a series sometimes referred to as his "school poems," where the classroom setting serves as a backdrop for exploring memory and desire. Lawrence was profoundly influenced by the English countryside of his Midlands upbringing, and the wildflowers mentioned—marsh marigolds, cowslips, lady-smocks—are all native to the damp meadows of Nottinghamshire. The poem foreshadows the themes of passionate, destructive love and natural symbolism that would characterize his later novels.
FAQ
Lawrence never mentions her by name, leading to ongoing debates among scholars about her identity. The strongest contender appears to be Jessie Chambers, his childhood sweetheart and close friend from Nottinghamshire, with whom he shared a long, passionate, and ultimately painful relationship. The bog-end setting and the particular flowers reflect the Eastwood countryside where they spent time together. However, it’s worth noting that Lawrence revised many of his early poems, so the "you" could represent a combination of influences rather than just one individual.
Not exactly literal, but not completely metaphorical either. "Sickening" describes how a strong smell can trigger a physical reaction, almost making you feel nauseous — especially when it brings back memories you haven't fully dealt with. The speaker isn't throwing up; he's feeling overwhelmed. It's like when a song from a tough breakup plays out of the blue.
They're all genuine British wildflowers. "May-blobs" is a local term for marsh marigolds, which bloom with bright yellow flowers in wet ground during spring. Lady-smocks, also known as cuckooflowers, are delicate pale lilac-white flowers found in moist meadows. Cowslips are small yellow blooms that you often see in English meadows. Lawrence chooses these specific local names to anchor the memory in a real, distinct location instead of a vague "field of flowers."
Yes, genuinely. The poem moves toward relief rather than grief. The relationship is depicted as a "fire of darkness" that engulfed them both — the woman is "burnt like a sacrifice," and they "fainted like smoke or dew." By the final stanza, the speaker feels thankful that the fire has extinguished and her face has turned to ash. He can function again. It's a complicated kind of relief — the memories were lovely, but the relationship was also harmful, and he's relieved to be free from it.
The poem consists of six stanzas, each with six lines, featuring a loose rhyme scheme that changes from stanza to stanza. Lawrence doesn’t adhere to a strict pattern; instead, he employs rhyme to evoke a feeling of incantation and return, reflecting the speaker's entrapment in a memory loop. The lines are lengthy and irregular, lending the poem a flowing, nearly breathless quality that aligns with the overwhelming sensations of the memories.
It's a rich image. The woman leans into the marigold bunch, and the flowers' golden light appears to envelop her — pulling her in completely. "Should not outlast" implies she was such a perfect fit within that moment and landscape that she almost shouldn't have moved on. It suggests she truly belonged to that place and time, and that memory has kept her there, even as she has evolved or disappeared.
Almost certainly, at least in its raw material. Lawrence often drew on his own life experiences throughout his career, and the setting of Nottinghamshire's bog-end, the voice of the schoolteacher, and the emotional dynamics all reflect details from his early life. However, he was also a meticulous craftsman who transformed his experiences into art, so viewing the poem merely as a diary entry overlooks the intentional way he crafted the imagery and emotional journey.
Several threads connect directly to his fiction. The vivid, nature-filled memories of a first love, the idea that passion can also lead to destruction, and the distinct Midlands landscape all resurface in *Sons and Lovers* (1913), where the character Miriam is generally recognized as inspired by Jessie Chambers. The bog-end scenes in the poem closely mirror those in the novel. Lawrence was exploring the same emotional themes in both works around the same period.