Drunk

Essay Questions

1. How does Lawrence use the speaker's intoxicated state as a structural device in "Drunk" to explore the relationship between desire and perception?

Consider how the progression from woozy tenderness to feverish hallucination to dignified pledge shapes the reader's understanding of the speaker's emotional condition, and how the dual states of drunkenness and genuine love are presented as mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory. [AQA AO1/AO2 | AP Lit Q1 Poetry Analysis | IB Guiding Concept: Identity]

1. To what extent does Lawrence present nature as a projection of the speaker's inner life rather than an objective external reality in "Drunk"?

Your answer should explore how the specific spring flowers — hawthorn, lilac, and laburnum — are transformed by the speaker's longing, and what this reveals about the relationship between the natural world and human emotion in the poem. [AQA AO1/AO2 | IB Guiding Concept: Transformation]

1. How does Lawrence use light and artificial illumination as a symbol of desire's distorting power in "Drunk"?

Examine the role of the arc-lamps in initiating and sustaining the speaker's hallucinations, and consider what Lawrence suggests about the nature of longing by anchoring his poem in the distinctly modern, urban setting of a gas- or electrically-lit suburban street. [AQA AO2/AO3 | AP Lit Q1 Poetry Analysis]

1. "In 'Drunk,' Lawrence ultimately affirms fidelity over fantasy." To what extent do you agree with this reading of the poem?

Your response should weigh the erotic and almost desperate energy of the central hallucination sequences against the dignified, unconditional pledge delivered in the poem's closing movement, considering whether these two impulses are in tension or ultimately reconciled. [AQA AO1/AO2 | IB Guiding Concept: Conflict and Resolution]

1. How does the symbolic contrast between the couples on the pavement and the phantoms in the trees function in "Drunk" to develop the theme of loneliness?

Explore how Lawrence sets the tangible reality of paired human intimacy against the speaker's solitary, intoxicated visions, and what this juxtaposition suggests about the nature of longing and the pain of absence. [AQA AO1/AO2 | AP Lit Q1 Poetry Analysis | IB Guiding Concept: Connection]

1. Compare how Lawrence in "Drunk" and ONE other poem you have studied present the experience of longing through the natural world.

In your response, consider how each poet uses imagery drawn from nature to externalise an internal emotional state, and how the specific cultural or seasonal contexts of the natural imagery shape the reader's understanding of desire. [AQA AO1/AO2/AO3 | IB Higher Level Comparative Task]

1. How does Lawrence draw on and depart from the tradition of the nocturne in "Drunk"?

Consider how the poem's setting — a solitary night walk through a suburban, lamp-lit street — conforms to the conventions of the night-piece, while also examining how Lawrence's frank treatment of the body, desire, and hallucination pushes the form in directions his Georgian contemporaries largely avoided. [AQA AO3 | IB Guiding Concept: Intertextuality and Form]

1. To what extent is the veil — as embodied in the mantilla imagery associated with the lilac blossoms — the controlling symbol of "Drunk"?

Explore how the tension between concealment and revelation, modesty and desire, operates across the poem's central hallucination sequence, and consider whether this symbol helps to illuminate the broader relationship between the speaker's fantasy life and his pledge of real commitment at the poem's close. [AQA AO1/AO2 | AP Lit Q1 Poetry Analysis]