Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SCYTHE STRUCK BY LIGHTING, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A thick hot haze had choked the valley grounds Last Line: That ripens into blue, nor knows the storm is by. Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): England; Landscape; Lightning; English; Lightning Rods | ||||||||
A THICK hot haze had choked the valley grounds Long since, the dogday sun had gone his rounds Like a dull coal half lit with sulky heat; And leas were iron, ponds were clay, fierce beat The blackening flies round moody cattle's eyes. Wasps on the mudbanks seemed a hornet's size That on the dead roach battened. The plough's increase Stood under a curse. Behold, the far release! Old wisdom breathless at her cottage door "Sounds of abundance" mused, hearing the roar Of marshalled armies in the silent air, And thought Elisha stood beside her there, And loudly forecast ere the next nightfall She'd turn the looking-glasses to the wall. Faster than armies out of the burnt void The hourglass clouds innumerably deployed, And when the hay-folks next look up, the sky Sags black above them; scarce is time to fly. And most run for their cottages; but Ward, The mower, for the inn beside the ford, And slow strides he with shouldered scythe still bare, While to the coverts leaps the great-eyed hare. As he came in the dust snatched up and whirled Hung high, and like a bell-rope whipped and twirled; The brazen light glared round, the haze resolved Into demoniac shapes bulged and convolved. Well might poor ewes afar make bleatings wild, Though this old trusting mower sat and smiled; For from the hush of many days the land Had waked itself: and now on every hand Shrill swift alarm-notes, cries and counter-cries, Lowings and crowings came and throbbing sighs. Now atom lightning brandished on the moor, Then out of sullen drumming came the roar Of thunder joining battle east and west: In hedge and orchard small birds durst not rest, Flittering like dead leaves and like wisps of straws, And the cuckoo called again, for without pause Oncoming voices in the vortex burred. The storm came toppling like a wave, and blurred In grey the trees that like black steeples towered. The sun's last yellow died. Then who but cowered? Down ruddying darkness floods the hideous flash, And pole to pole the cataract whirlwinds clash. Alone within the tavern parlour still Sat the grey mower, pondering Nature's will, And flinching not to flame or bolt, that swooped With a great hissing rain till terror drooped In weariness: and then there came a roar Ten-thousand-fold, he saw not, was no more -- But life bursts on him once again, and blood Beats droning round, and light comes in a flood. He stares and sees the sashes battered awry, The wainscot shivered, the crocks shattered, and nigh, His twisted scythe, melted by its fierce foe, Whose Parthian shot struck down the chimney. Slow Old Ward lays hand to his old working-friend, And thanking God Whose mercy did defend His servant, yet must drop a tear or two, Adrift on times when that old scythe was new; And stands in silent grief, nor hears the voices Of many a bird that through the land rejoices, Nor sees through the smashed panes the seagreen sky, That ripens into blue, nor knows the storm is by. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOLT FROM THE BLUE by GREGORY ORR THE YOUNG MYSTIC by LOUIS UNTERMEYER POSTSCRIPT; TO MAXIME KUMIN by ELEANOR WILNER THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER by MARVIN BELL EPITAPH by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU THE IMPROVISATORE: ALBERT AND EMILY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES LIGHTNING by WILLIAM ROSE BENET SHEET LIGHTNING by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE OMINOUS TIMES by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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