Love on the Farm by D.H. Lawrence: Summary and Analysis

The poem ‘Love on the Farm’ depicts a sense of romance from the title however illustrates the cruel love of the speaker's husband through a dramatic monologue. The farm refers to the rustic setting resembling the natural expectations. However, the poet begins with frightening images like large dark hands seen by the speaker at the window, hills like anxious human breast provides a sense of ghost story or fairytale about the poem.

The speaker of the poem is a woman. Woman in the poem fantasize love with images: woodbine, swallow, rabbit, that provides us with a natural sense. Woodbine refers to love that is sweet and natural between flower and worm in nature. Through this, the feminine and masculine part of love is described in nature. Similarly, swallows resemble the house of birds; Barn Swallow which ultimately gives a sense of natural and spontaneous love. But, the natural cycle of love is interrupted by the saunters. The bird tries to protect herself but fails to save herself. This also refers to selfish masculine humanity rather than that of feminine humanity.

The female doesn't harm nature rather they preserve it, but the male lacks the sense of nurture, they have the dominating value of harming others. Likewise, the rabbit is also a victim of cruel masculine humanity. The masculine figure of the poet attempts to dominate the swallow, the rabbit and finally his wife. The way he treats animals, he treats his wife in the same way. The animals are dominated in a murderous way and wife in a sexual way. The line, "God, I am caught in a snare" depicts the painful situation of woman. She mentions that she has been trapped not to be killed but to be abused.

The way a man behaves with his wife can be interpreted in a way that he has no feelings towards his wife. The way rabbits cannot escape from the hunter, the wife has no option to escape. The wife refers to the hands of her husband as a sword and wire, "Ah! The uplifted sword of his hand against my bosom! (54) The description of actions exposes that the wife is a victim of patriarchy which is providing her physical trauma. The snare can be used as a metaphor in which the rabbit was trapped as well as the woman being caught by her husband. The poem thematically refers to the cruelty that is in modern time. Either it is external or internal, the cruelty is at its height.

Analysis of the Poem

D. H Lawrence in his poem, "Love on the Farm" tactfully exposes the idea that there is a contradiction between the love of human beings and the love of animals or birds. On one hand the love of animals and birds is quite innocent and inoffensive; they do not harm anyone while making love. On the other hand, human love is quite destructive or harmful to others. The poem suggests that human nature is not gullible or trustworthy rather it is full of selfishness and cruelty. The poem is a commentary on the cruel and selfish nature of human beings.

The poem begins with the speaker's observation of the scene around the farm by sitting in the window in the evening. As the speaker observes the scene, her heart is delighted by the affairs of different animals and birds or other creatures around the farm. From the beginning to line 35, the speaker describes how these different creatures make their love. She talks about the erotic scene that the poet creates in association with those animals and birds' lovemaking process. For instance the lines, "I see redness suddenly come/ Into the evening's anxious breast-/ Tis the wound of love goes home!" reveal the sense of eroticism. Similarly, the speaker describes,

The woodbine creeps abroad Calling low to her lover:

The sun-lit flirt who all the day

Has poised above her lips in play

And stolen kisses, Shallow and gay

Of pollen now has gone away-

Here, the poet makes a very clear description of an erotic scene where the woodbine moves slowly toward her lover. She has poised above her lips in play and stolen kisses deeply with joy. The speaker looks the way the woodbine loves to her lover. Similarly, she talks about the love of another creature, moth- "She woos the moth with her sweet, low word:/And when above her his moth-wings hover/Then her bright breasts she will uncover/ And yield her honey-drop to her lover". In addition, the line, "Where the swallow has hung" her marriage bed" also reveals the erotic scene. The whole description from the line 5-24 is about how the creatures in nature make love. By this description, it is also clear that the animals or birds in nature do not harm others while loving each other. Their love is so innocent and selfless but still we human beings dominate them. This is how the poet describes the love on the farm. But suddenly, the poet shows the speaker moving in the description which is just opposite to the earlier.

The speaker moves to the description of a rabbit that is severely haunted by her husband. It is the main crux of the poem in the sense that the earlier description is about love but later it refers to the cruelty that human beings are exposed to. The rabbit is very much innocent that it "presses back her ears" and "Turns back her liquid, anguished eyes/And crouches low, " The rabbit is in a vulnerable condition that she "Spurts from the terror of his oncoming. "Here, the speaker is describing the scene of killing a rabbit by her husband. The italicized possessive pronoun, "his" refers to the speaker's husband who later comes towards "her to express love. She explains it as the husband is imposing power on her. The lines, "I hear his hand on the latch, and rise-from my chair/watching the door open; he flashes bare/His strong teeth in a smile and flashes his eyes/In a smile like triumph upon me." male as cruel or strong-hearted.

The poem also suggests how we human beings deliberately suspend humanity. We do not hesitate to take the life of someone else in order to fulfill our self-interests. In the poem, the speaker's husband kills the rabbit and only after then he goes to love his wife. Here is the difference in human love that we make love by affecting others. But other creatures' love has not any negative impact on others. Similarly, the presence of human beings can be a barrier to the love of other creatures and ultimately it may cause their destruction.

The poem conveys that women are always treated as the object of fulfilling men's desire. They are not allowed to go beyond (their husbands') decision. The speaker mentions, "I know not what fine wire is round my throat", which indicates that women are controlled by men. They can do nothing going against men, therefore, the speaker also surrenders in front of him despite her will to die "Against him, die, and find death good".

The poem can be taken as a critical commentary on human love which is guided by selfishness and harm. The husband loves her only to fulfill his sexual passion but he doesn't understand her feelings. He is so cruel that he kills an innocent rabbit in order to seduce his wife. The speaker overall perceives her husband as a rude predator who enjoys exploiting and killing others. The poet's tact of selecting all female creatures such as woodbine, swallow, water-hen, rabbit and the female speaker indicate his deliberate intention to show masculinity as-full of cruelty, selfishness, immorality, inhumanity, injustice and violence.