Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RAVEL'S 'BOLERO', by EVA TRIEM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RAVEL'S 'BOLERO', by                    
First Line: In a strange preoccupation
Last Line: I died of drums.
Subject(s): Ravel, Maurice (1875-1937)


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.





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