Poetry & Analysis
Selected Turtle Poems
Animal PoemsTortoise Shell
The Cross, the Cross
Goes deeper in than we know,
Deeper into life;
Right into the marrow
And through the bone.
Along the back of the baby tortoise
The scales are locked in an arch like a bridge,
Scale-lapping, like a lobster’s sections
Or a bee’s.
Then crossways down his sides
Tiger-stripes and wasp-bands.
Five, and five again, and five again,
And round the edges twenty-five little ones,
The sections of the baby tortoise shell.
Four, and a keystone;
Four, and a keystone;
Four, and a keystone;
Then twenty-four, and a tiny little keystone.
It needed Pythagoras to see life playing with counters on the living back
Of the baby tortoise;
Life establishing the first eternal mathematical tablet,
Not in stone, like the Judean Lord, or bronze, but in life-clouded, life-rosy tortoise shell.
The first little mathematical gentleman
Stepping, wee mite, in his loose trousers
Under all the eternal dome of mathematical law.
Overview Short Summary
“Tortoise Shell” studies the pattern of a baby tortoise’s shell. Lawrence sees geometry, religious symbolism, and mathematical order written into the animal’s body.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Turtle shell symbolism: The shell becomes a sign of structure, protection, and hidden design.
- Mathematical pattern: The poem counts sections, keystones, fives, tens, and divisions.
- Sacred form: The cross and tablet imagery give the shell spiritual meaning.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is meditative, intense, and symbolic. The mood is serious because the shell becomes a map of life’s order.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise shell symbolizes home, protection, mathematical law, spiritual pattern, and the visible design of life.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The poem begins with the Cross, suggesting that form and division go deep into life.
Middle Lines
Lawrence studies the shell’s scales, stripes, sections, and keystones, treating the back as a living mathematical tablet.
Closing Lines
The baby tortoise becomes a “mathematical gentleman,” walking under the dome of natural law.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses architectural and mathematical imagery: arch, bridge, sections, keystone, tablet, counters, and dome. Personification appears when life is imagined as playing with counters on the tortoise’s back.
Craft Literary Devices
- Symbolism: The cross and shell pattern carry spiritual and structural meaning.
- Metaphor: The shell is a mathematical tablet.
- Allusion: Pythagoras evokes mathematics and cosmic order.
- Visual imagery: The shell is seen through stripes, scales, sections, and arches.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses free verse and catalog-like counting. Its structure mirrors the shell’s segmented pattern.
Excerpt from Tortoise Family Connections
On he goes, the little one,
Bud of the universe,
Pediment of life.
Setting off somewhere, apparently.
Whither away, brisk egg?
His mother deposited him on the soil as if he were no more than droppings,
And now he scuffles tinily past her as if she were an old rusty tin.
A mere obstacle,
He veers round the slow great mound of her—
Tortoises always foresee obstacles.
Overview Short Summary
This excerpt from “Tortoise Family Connections” watches a baby tortoise move away from its mother. Lawrence presents the tortoise as independent almost from birth.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Independence: The baby tortoise begins its journey without parental tenderness.
- Life’s beginning: The tortoise is called a “bud of the universe.”
- Obstacle and movement: The animal already knows how to move around barriers.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is observant, ironic, and philosophical. The mood is strange and unsentimental because family connection is shown through distance rather than affection.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes self-contained life, independence, and practical survival. Its shell marks it as a creature prepared to carry its own world.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The baby tortoise is named as a small but cosmic beginning: a bud and pediment of life.
Middle Lines
The poem notes the absence of sentimental family connection. The mother appears as an obstacle rather than a nurturer.
Closing Lines
The tortoise veers around the larger body, and the speaker remarks that tortoises foresee obstacles.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses images of bud, egg, soil, rusty tin, mound, and obstacle. Personification appears in the idea that tortoises foresee obstacles.
Craft Literary Devices
- Metaphor: The baby tortoise is a “bud of the universe.”
- Irony: Family connection is presented as near-indifference.
- Symbolism: The obstacle suggests life’s practical challenges.
- Free verse observation: The poem moves through precise, unusual details.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The excerpt uses free verse with short, shifting lines. Its structure follows the baby tortoise as it begins moving away.
Excerpt from Lui et Elle
She is large and matronly
And rather dirty,
A little sardonic-looking, as if domesticity had driven her to it.
Though what she does, except lay four eggs at random in the garden once a year
And put up with her husband,
I don’t know.
She likes to eat.
She hurries up, striding reared on long uncanny legs,
When food is going.
Oh yes, she can make haste when she likes.
Overview Short Summary
This excerpt from “Lui et Elle” gives a sharp portrait of a female tortoise. Lawrence uses humor and domestic language to make the tortoise seem both animal and strangely human.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Domestic satire: The tortoise is described in terms usually applied to human household life.
- Animal personality: She appears matronly, hungry, sardonic, and capable of speed when motivated.
- Tortoise behavior: The poem notices eggs, food, and movement.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is comic, observant, and slightly ironic. The mood is earthy because the tortoise is presented without romantic softness.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes domestic endurance, appetite, and the stubborn self-possession of an animal with its own priorities.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The tortoise is described as large, matronly, dirty, and sardonic-looking.
Middle Lines
The speaker dryly summarizes her domestic role: laying eggs and putting up with her husband.
Closing Lines
Food changes the tortoise’s pace; she can hurry when she chooses.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses bodily and domestic imagery: matronly size, dirty surface, eggs, garden, husband, food, and uncanny legs. Personification appears in the sardonic look and domestic role.
Craft Literary Devices
- Irony: The poem treats tortoise behavior like human domestic life.
- Personification: The tortoise is described as matronly and sardonic.
- Humor: The line about making haste when food is going is comic.
- Character sketch: The animal is drawn like a personality portrait.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The excerpt uses free verse and observational pacing. Its structure works like a short comic character study.
Excerpt from Tortoise Gallantry
Making his advances
He does not look at her, nor sniff at her,
No, not even sniff at her, his nose is blank.
Only he senses the vulnerable folds of skin
That work beneath her while she sprawls along
In her ungainly pace,
Her folds of skin that work and row
Beneath the earth-soiled hovel in which she moves.
Their two shells like domed boats bumping,
Hers huge, his small;
Their splay feet rambling and rowing like paddles,
And stumbling mixed up in one another,
In the race of love—
Two tortoises,
She huge, he small.
Overview Short Summary
This excerpt from “Tortoise Gallantry” observes tortoise courtship with earthy precision. Lawrence turns the awkward movement of two tortoises into a strange “race of love.”
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Animal courtship: The poem presents mating behavior through physical detail.
- Awkward movement: The tortoises bump, ramble, row, and stumble.
- Shell imagery: Their shells are compared to domed boats.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is frank, physical, and observational. The mood is unusual and slightly comic because courtship appears slow, clumsy, and persistent.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes instinctive persistence and embodied life. The shell becomes both shelter and burden in the animal’s awkward movement toward love.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The male tortoise begins making advances without ordinary signs of animal courtship such as looking or sniffing.
Middle Lines
The poem focuses on skin, shell, pace, and bodily movement.
Closing Lines
The two shells become domed boats, and the poem names the scene a “race of love.”
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses tactile and movement imagery: folds of skin, ungainly pace, earth-soiled hovel, domed boats, splay feet, and paddles. The tortoises are personified through the word “gallantry,” though their behavior remains animal.
Craft Literary Devices
- Simile: The shells are like domed boats.
- Metaphor: The shell is an earth-soiled hovel.
- Physical imagery: The poem emphasizes skin, feet, shell, and movement.
- Irony: “Gallantry” sounds elegant, but the scene is clumsy and earthy.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The excerpt uses free verse with irregular lines. Its structure follows a physical courtship scene from approach to awkward movement.
Background Original Context
This poem is more suitable for older readers because it describes animal courtship. It is included for literary completeness and turtle symbolism, not as a children’s poem.
Excerpt from Tortoise Shout
I thought he was dumb,
I said he was dumb,
Yet I’ve heard him cry.
First faint scream,
Out of life’s unfathomable dawn,
Far off, so far, like a madness, under the horizon’s dawning rim,
Far, far off, far scream.
Tortoise in extremis.
Why were we not left rounded off, and finished in ourselves,
As we began,
As he certainly began, so perfectly alone?
Overview Short Summary
In this excerpt from “Tortoise Shout,” Lawrence reflects on a tortoise’s unexpected cry. The sound becomes a way to think about loneliness, life, and broken silence.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Voice and silence: The tortoise is thought to be dumb, yet it cries.
- Existential loneliness: The poem asks why living beings are not left complete in themselves.
- Ancient life: The tortoise cry seems to come from life’s earliest dawn.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is intense, questioning, and philosophical. The mood is unsettling because the tortoise’s cry opens a deep meditation on life.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes ancient solitude and the first breaking of silence. Its cry becomes a sign that even armored, self-contained life can suffer and speak.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The speaker admits he believed the tortoise was voiceless, then declares that he has heard it cry.
Middle Lines
The cry is described as far away, ancient, and almost mad, as if coming from the dawn of life.
Closing Lines
The speaker turns the tortoise’s cry into a question about why living beings are not complete alone.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses sound imagery: dumbness, cry, scream, far-off sound, and dawn. Personification appears because the tortoise’s cry is given existential meaning.
Craft Literary Devices
- Repetition: “I thought” and “I said” emphasize the speaker’s changed understanding.
- Sound imagery: The faint scream becomes the emotional center.
- Rhetorical question: The poem asks large questions about life and solitude.
- Symbolism: The tortoise represents hidden pain beneath silence.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The excerpt uses free verse. Its structure moves from surprise, to description of sound, to philosophical questioning.
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