POETRY REVIEW D H LAWRENCE RABBIT SNARES

The narrator has captured a rabbit and holds it on his lap, preparing to kill it. He expresses some surprise at the rabbit offering n resistance to its fate, or expressing any fear of its imminent doom.

The narrator takes this to be proof and evidence that the rabbit is a willing accomplice in its looming execution, rather than a limited awareness of the danger and threat it faces.

The Narrator (not necessarily Lawrence himself) takes a strong degree of sadistic, even psychotic and malicious delight in his part in the wretched creature’s imminent destruction. He `puts full moral responsibility for the killing on the victim, which may have bitten the hunter when he first took it from the snare.  The snare the rabbit is now in is the dilemma it faces. If it showed some desire to escape, there is hope that the killer might release it. Its passive acceptance of the inevitable deathblow makes that deathblow all the more certain. The killer sees himself as punisher, and a lawful executioner, a being of the power and authority to despatch the helpless bunny from our World.

This is a powerful, disturbing poem, about martyrdom and those willing to exploit a martyr’s death wish and drive home the death desired. It also captures a sense of sexual captivity, as in the image of the rabbit sitting on the killer’s knee, and may be a metaphor for the male brute dominating the passive female, taking (killing) her chastity and virginal innocence, pressuring a girl into intercourse, or possibly raping a woman who is too afraid to flee or fight back.

Ultimately, this is Lawrence at his most scary and disturbing.

Arthur Chappell

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