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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BRONZE TRUMPETS AND SEA WATER; ON TURNING LATIN VERSE INTO ENGLISH by ELINOR WYLIE

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: ALEMBICS TURN TO STRANGER THINGS
Last Line: WHO SMOOTHS THE RIPPLES OUT OF IT.
Subject(s): CHANGE; ENGLISH LANGUAGE; LATIN LANGUAGE; TRANSLATING & INTERPRETING;

Alembics turn to stranger things
Strange things, but never while we live
Shall magic turn this bronze that sings
To singing water in a sieve.

The trumpeters of Caesar's guard
Salute his rigorous bastions
With ordered bruit; the bronze is hard
Though there is silver in the bronze.

Our mutable tongue is like the sea,
Curled wave and shattering thunder-fit;
Dangle in strings of sand shall he
Who smooths the ripples out of it.



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