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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EVENING MUSIC by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: LIKE A GREAT BAT'S WING ANGLED ON THE WEST
Last Line: UTTERED THEMSELVES EVEN HERE WHEN THOSE STILL PEAKS HURLED FLAME.
Subject(s): JAPAN; JAPANESE;
LIKE a great bat's wing angled on the West
The dead volcanoes, blue and silent, stand.
Nothing could seem more finally at rest,
Colour alone can change their mask: her hand
From those stone lips, which once ensanguined night
With shouting hell-fire, now allures a gleam
Like rosy childhood's love, an amaranth-light.
Darkness comes on her in this fabling dream.

Now light your lanterns, every thorp below
Those monsters in their calm of long ago,
And strike your strings' cicada-tinglings: dame,
Sing at your silkwork; yet, musicians, mark --
Your verse and motive through the dewy dark
Uttered themselves even here when those still peaks hurled flame.



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