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...FUGUE FOR A DROWNED GIRL by JAMES GALVIN GEOMETRY IS THE MIND OF GOD by JAMES GALVIN THE STORY OF THE END OF THE STORY by JAMES GALVIN BACCALAUREATE by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. CHARLES BLISS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE LAKE BOATS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |