"Tease" by D H Lawrence (poetry reading)

The châtelaine is the mistress of the house, but the word also means a keychain.

Lawrence describes what it is like to be the object of jealous love. In such relationships the lover is seeking to control the beloved, is seeking ownership rather than an equitable partnership, yet is in the suppliant role. (A suppliant is one who pleads or entreats.) The beloved soon realises that they cannot meet the lover's demands, answer all their questions or release all of the truth because it would be too hurtful - and however much they give up it will never be enough.

Voltaire said, "Jealously is a self-inflicted disease and the sufferer wishes to die of it"

Relationships where one party is accepting suspicion, interrogation and even punishment are common. Such relationships are only stable and lasting if that party derives masochistic pleasure from the intense attention. But it is always the masochist who has control of the relationship - in spite of outward appearances.

The painting is Jupiter and Thetis 1811 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

YouTube used to allow me to use any artwork as the thumbnail. Now it usually won't - if anybody knows a way around this problem, please tell me.

I WILL give you all my keys,
You shall be my châtelaine,
You shall enter as you please,
As you please shall go again.

When I hear you jingling through
All the chambers of my soul,
How I sit and laugh at you
In your vain housekeeping rôle.

Jealous of the smallest cover,
Angry at the simplest door;
Well, you anxious, inquisitive lover,
Are you pleased with what's in store?

You have fingered all my treasures,
Have you not, most curiously,
Handled all my tools and measures
And masculine machinery?

Over every single beauty
You have had your little rapture;
You have slain, as was your duty,
Every sin-mouse you could capture.

Still you are not satisfied,
Still you tremble faint reproach;
Challenge me I keep aside
Secrets that you may not broach.

Maybe yes, and maybe no,
Maybe there are secret places,
Altars barbarous below,
Elsewhere halls of high disgraces.

Maybe yes, and maybe no,
You may have it as you please,
Since I choose to keep you so,
Suppliant on your curious knees.

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Tags:

• Tease
• Lawrence
• jealous
• lover
• poem
• poetry

[polymath7]

The Voltaire epigram you quote brings to mind these lines from Othello:

They are not ever jealous for the cause, but jealous for they're jealous. '

'Tis a monster

begot upon itself, born upon itself.

[SpokenVerse]

I looked for the Voltaire quotation on the web - and can't find it, which is strange. Maybe a long time ago I made it up and attributed it to Voltaire.

[GirlonFilm1969]

I just read this on my own channel. I absolutely adore DH Lawrence. Thank you so much for reading this. It's nice to hear how each person speaks these poems. Your reading was very calming while mine, admittedly, was very sexual. Perfect fit for Lawrence, I know.

[iankyoko]

@Piquarian In my collection of DHL poems there is an appendix which has poems that Lawrence revised. I think the revised versions are superior, sometimes considerably so. My favorite poem, Snap-Dragon, I think is far superior to the original version.

[Piquarian]

I don't know if this has been remarked, I haven't foraged through all the comments, but I thought it worth pointing out that, in my copy of his collected poems, The last stanza is as follows:

"Maybe yes, and maybe no,

You may have it as you please;

Since you are so keen to know

Everything, Miss Ill-at-ease!"

[polymath7]

I can't place it either, and I can't be quite sure if I've come across it before, or if it just feels that way because it sounds so much like something he'd say.

[thallassocracy]

I have always loved this piece. When I was sixteen I found the thought of Frieda handling David's 'masculine machinery' as comic as it was stimulating. The line doesn't thrill me the way it used to, but then it delights me even more than it did then.

When Lawrence said precisely the same thing but using different words (in Sons and Lovers - and other places) the public hangman burned his books.

[scifiwritir]

Spoken, you wrote: "But it is always the masochist who has control of the relationship - in spite of outward appearances." Not sure I believe that. Might be true, mind you. But not convinced. But great poem as usual, and as always, well spoken, Spoken. Thanks.

[jmsimpson11]

very good.