The poem
Why does the thin grey strand Floating up from the forgotten Cigarette between my fingers, Why does it trouble me?
Ah, you will understand; When I carried my mother downstairs, A few times only, at the beginning Of her soft-foot malady,
I should find, for a reprimand To my gaiety, a few long grey hairs On the breast of my coat; and one by one I let them float up the dark chimney.
One of the saddest poems I've ever read. So heartwrenching.
sorrow
sorrow
sorrow
"Sorrow" is a Lawrence poem which was written in the process of grieving for his mother. It is touching and conflicting in that it expresses not only emotions of sorrow but emotions of gaiety.
The memory of his mother dying would haunt Lawrence for years. His image of a stream of smoke floating up from a cigarette is like the slow burn of a cigarette compared to the slow death of his mother.