What does the poem, 'Under the Oak Tree' by D. H. Lawrence mean?

What does the poem, 'Under the Oak Tree' by D. H. Lawrence mean?It goes like this:



You, if you were sensible,
When I tell you the stars flash signals, each one dreadful,
You would not turn and answer me
"The night is wonderful."

Even you, if you knew
How this darkness soaks me through and through, and infuses
Unholy fear in my vapor, you would pause to distinguish
What hurts, from what amuses.

For I tell you
Beneath this powerful tree, my whole soul's fluid
Oozes away from me as a sacrifice steam
At the knife of a Druid.

Again I tell you, I bleed, I am bound with wit hies,
My life runs out.
I tell you my blood runs out on the floor of this oak,
Gout upon gout.

Above me springs the blood-born mistletoe
In the shady smoke.
But who are you, twittering to and fro
Beneath the oak?

What thing better are you, what worse?
What have you to do with the mysteries
Of this ancient place, of my ancient curse?
What place have you in my histories?


Please help?
Thanks! (-:

libby l
Lawrence is measuring his life by the observation of the oak tree which grows strong and proud. It seems a bird is playing in the branches of the oak, unaware of the history or power of such an old tree. Lawrence is cursed by his dark thoughts and his past history measured by the age of the tree.

Rather than see the beauty of nature Lawrence sees the darkness, feels fear in the face of such mysteries as the stars and is humbled by the oak tree. The birds know how to just enjoy but Lawrence feels things too keenly. I wouldn't be surprised if he was perhaps even thinking of hanging himself from the tree. It appears he is very depressed and in pain.


OR

The voice of the poem is Mother Nature and man is the one "twittering to and fro Beneath the oak".
Perhaps Lawrence is prophetic and foretold of the new twitter craze? ( wink )

haroldpohl2000
Lawrence knew from ancient histories and Celtic lore that the mistletoe-bearing oak tree was a place of ritual sacrifice and he felt those sacrifices so empathecally that he was impatient with anyone who could sit or flutter beneath an ancient oak and only see and feel the pleasantness of a moonlit night of the present time.

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