The Shades of Spring

The Shades of Spring by D.H. Lawrence

John Adderley Syson walks back through the wood near Willey-Water Farm, retracing a path he knew intimately years before, and finds it unchanged: the forge, the gap in the holly hedge, the bluebells, the view over the village and pit-hill. A young keeper, Arthur Pilbeam, stops him and challenges his right to be there, having taken over the position from the now rheumatic Naylor, whose nephew he is. Learning Syson's name, Pilbeam reveals that he is courting Hilda Millership, whom Syson used to court. Syson admits he has been married fifteen months, which the keeper had not known. Pilbeam, resentful, presses Syson about why, if he is married, he still writes to Hilda and sends her books of poetry. Syson, stung and self-contemptuous, agrees to leave her alone and continues on to the farm, brooding on his own foolishness. At the farm, Syson is received awkwardly by Hilda's family, who treat him as changed and refined, no longer one of them. Hilda herself is composed, "static," and much altered from the girl he remembers. She feeds him eggs, curd cheese, and stewed gooseberries, and shows him the refurnished parlour, where he finds his old books and lesson-volumes still kept in a cupboard, along with his youthful watercolours on the wall. They examine an old pair of scissors that once belonged to "the countess," and for a moment the old intimacy flickers between them. Hilda takes him out to see the wood and orchard, showing him nests of wrens, robins, chaffinches, and other birds with new assurance and using the country names herself, where once he had been the one who taught her such things. She tells him she now has "a lover as well" — the keeper — and speaks of altars to various gods, of understanding herself, of being married "actually" though not legally, the same night as his own wedding. She leads him to Pilbeam's log hut in the pine wood, furnished with skins, furs, and a couch of heather and bracken, and shows him a rabbit-and-stoat-fur cloak and a jar of honeysuckle sprays. She tells him that though he could once make the stars and forget-me-nots "wonderful" for her, she now has such things for herself. Pilbeam enters the hut and the three have a strained exchange; Syson proposes they drop their correspondence, but Hilda leaves it unresolved. Syson and Pilbeam walk out together toward the gate. Syson, moved and pained among the marigolds and gorse, reflects that what had existed between him and Hilda had never truly been real. Lingering unseen, he overhears Hilda and Pilbeam in the field: Pilbeam is stung by a bee, and Hilda sucks the poison from his arm, calling it "the reddest kiss." She reassures Pilbeam of her love, telling him not to trouble about "him" (Syson), and though Pilbeam urges marriage, she puts him off, saying it is "most beautiful as it is." After Pilbeam leaves, Hilda stands alone at the gate gazing over the country. Syson then departs, going back to town.

By D.H. Lawrence · First published 1911 · Genre: Fiction, Romance, Modernist literature · 6,890 words

First lines

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It was a mile nearer through the wood. Mechanically, Syson turned up by the forge and lifted the field-gate. The blacksmith and his mate stood still, watching the trespasser. But Syson looked too much a gentleman to be accosted. They let him go in silence across the small field to the wood.

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The Shades of Spring is listed on Textopian as a novella by D.H. Lawrence, dated 1911 CE.

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nature · spring · transformation · growth · love · relationships · human experience · emotion · symbolism · beauty · life cycles · introspection

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