In a strange preoccupation I was crying to another world When music stormed me, with one red banner Uncurled. I was roused to the heart's clamor, To the blood's broken frightened beat, By insistent horns, and a drumming -- Like hail on wheat. The walls dissolved ... I sobbed; I was swimming Toward a fire-lit shore, toward a brass height; And metal thunders crashed in my ears -- I drowned in light. I was mad -- mad -- mad. My doomed, drenched arms Struggled in the tingling, shimmering surf. Then, beyond the laughing smash of tambourines, I grasped A fragrant turf. I thought I was safe from the hell-hatched dancing measure, Here on the quiet lawn, sweet with fallen plums. In black delight, the cymbals, the small flutes pursued me; I died of drums. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MILLS OF DESTINY by EVA K. ANGLESBURG TO THE SKYLARK by BERNARD BARTON THE GLORY OF ALL ENGLAND by EDWARD WILLIAM BOK NOCTURNE by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR THE HUMMING-BIRD by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON WINNIPESAUKEE by EDMUND PALMER CLARKE |