POETRY REVIEW – D H LAWRENCE – THE COLLIER’S WIFE

A rare venture into comical dialect verse for Lawrence, and so well done it makes it a pity he didn’t do this more often.

There is a great story going on here, condensed into the space of a short poem. A child answers an urgent knock on the door to the family home, imagining that the visitor will be a gypsy selling trinkets but finding that it is a lad from the coal pit

Rushing to inform the family that the father /husband has had an accident at the coalmines.

The Mother / wife comes down to take charge of the conversation with the messenger boy and seems surprisingly unconcerned for her husband’s welfare. He seems to be very accident-prone and he has had many accidents before. This all strikes her as very routine, even though the messenger tells her that he has been taken away in an ambulance this time.

His wife reflects on how much time he may need off work to recover and the prospects of receiving some compensation. She thinks of the end it will bring to her peace and quiet.

There is strong humour here and powerful characterization study. There is something of a sense of shock in her insensitivity and lack of realistic awareness that this time things might be much more serious for the family. Lawrence’s short story The Odour Of Chrysanthemums takes the same subject much more seriously the poem works remarkably well for condensing so much plot into a relatively short work.

Arthur Chappell