The poem
At evening, sitting on this terrace, When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the mountains of Carrara Departs, and the world is taken by surprise ...
When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the glowing Brown hills surrounding ...
When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio A green light enters against stream, flush from the west, Against the current of obscure Arno ...
Look up, and you see things flying Between the day and the night; Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together.
A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge arches Where light pushes through; A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air. A dip to the water.
And you think: "The swallows are flying so late!"
Swallows?
Dark air-life looping Yet missing the pure loop ... A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight And serrated wings against the sky, Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light, And falling back.
Never swallows! Bats! The swallows are gone.
At a wavering instant the swallows gave way to bats By the Ponte Vecchio ... Changing guard.
Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one's scalp As the bats swoop overhead! Flying madly.
Pipistrello! Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe. Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive;
Wings like bits of umbrella.
Bats!
Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep; And disgustingly upside down.
Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags And grinning in their sleep. Bats!
Not for me!
I believe there is a line missing, second from the end.
'In China, the bat is a symbol of happiness'
its amazing to here that, bat that has been describe as so disgusting and compared to rags is a symbol of happiness. "not for me also"
what i really want to know is, does the poem has an underlining meaning or does it just describe bats and its feature?
What is the thematic analysis and the poetic devices employed by d.h lawrence in his poem BAt
this is quite fascinating
i think there is an underlying meaning
the poem is good work from elliot to the literary work and courage to the literature student. i think bat underlining meaning is to ridicule some pretendance and evil geneous found in our society.
this is my first time to hear about this poem and so i do not know anything about the poem and some one to analyse the poem for me.
i like the poem it is very exciting, every dh lawrence was very interesting especially snake and bat
i enjoy reading and analysising this poem......its fun each time i go through it....
It is nice
I am reading the poem for the first time.i want it to be analysed as i have it in my exam
kudos to lawrence, what a wonderful poem.
My comment
Am a lawrence i also hate bat.they are so digusting to i wounder what kind of people are living in china
The bat
The bat is said to be a symbolism which the poet persona depict wat is happn in our society.he also uses images for us 2 understand.
The poem is a wonderful one.the poet has been able to use the right diction to show his disgust for Bats
Bats, so disgusting!
who would ever on earth think of liking bats. They are not only disgusting,they are also used by witches and wizard to driving home their wicked plots against innocent people. These birds are evil and should be avoided. The poet here represented d bat wit d right diction and tone. I like the poet but hate bats
nice
this poem is one of its kind, it actually deduce the the fact that bats are bad and what they are used for, and the message is fantastic, kudos to D.H Lawrence for this wonderful piece put together.
Bat
Kudos 2 D.H Lawrence how cud an animal dat lies upside down wen sleeping shud b liked by pple,maybe they 2 they lay like dat wen sleeping
Bat
Bat is a bird that is usually use for evil deeds good work from d.h lawrence