Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CLEAR WEATHER, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CLEAR WEATHER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A cloudless day! With a keener line
Last Line: A great transparent dragon-fly.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


A CLOUDLESS day! with a keener line
The ruins jut on the glintering blue,
The gas gongs by the billets shine
Like gold or wine, so trim and new.

Sharp through the wreckage pries the gust,
And down the roads where wheels have rolled
Whirls the dry snow in powdery dust,
And starlings muster ruffled with cold.

The gunners profit by the light,
The guns like surly bandogs bark;
And towards Saint Jean in puffs of white
The anti-aircraft find a mark.

And now the sentries' whistles ply,
For overhead with whirring drone
An Albatros comes racing by,
Immensely high, and one of our own

From underneath to meet it mounts,
And banks and spirals up, and straight
The popping maxims' leaden founts
Spurt fire, the Boche drops like a weight:

A hundred feet he nose-dives, then
He rights himself and scuds down sky
Towards the German lines again,
A great transparent dragon-fly.





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