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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  New Year’s Night

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

New Year’s Night

By D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)
 
(From Look! We Have Come Through! 1918)

NOW you are mine, to-night at last I say it;
You’re a dove I have bought for sacrifice,
And to-night I slay it.
 
Here in my arms my naked sacrifice!
Death, do you hear, in my arms I am bringing        5
My offering, bought at great price.
 
She’s a silvery dove worth more than all I’ve got.
Now I offer her up to the ancient, inexorable God,
Who knows me not.
 
Look, she’s a wonderful dove, without blemish or spot!        10
I sacrifice all in her, my last of the world,
Pride, strength, all the lot.
 
All, all on the altar! And death swooping down
Like a falcon. ’Tis God has taken the victim;
I have won my renown.        15