"Fireworks" by Amy Lowell

[gl-oriana.livejournal.com]

You hate me and I hate you
And we are so polite, we two!

But whenever I see you, I burst apart
And scatter the sky with my blazing heart.
It spits and sparkles in the stars and balls,
Buds into roses – and flares, and falls.

Scarlet buttons, and pale green disks,
Silver spirals and asterisks,
Shoot and tremble in a mist
Peppered with mauve and amethyst.

I shine in the windows and light up the trees,
And all because I hate you, if you please.

And when you meet me, you rend asunder
And go up in a flaming wonder
Of saffron cubes, and crimson moons,
And wheels all amaranths and maroons.

Golden lozenges and spades
Arrows of malachites and jades,
Patens of copper, azure sheaves.
As you mount, you flash in the glossy leaves.

Such fireworks as we make, we two!
Because you hate me and I hate you.

Comments

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Dude, I totally like this but -- And all because I hate you, if you please. -- that scans so wrong it sets my teeth on edge. What were you thinking, Amy?

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to give her credit for possibly having done that on purpose, and ask why she mighta.

[peccare.livejournal.com]

yeah same here,even though it totally threw me.

[mm511.livejournal.com]

Funny, that line didn't bother me, but I read "And wheels all amaranths and maroons" and nearly fell off my chair, I felt so thrown. Perhaps I'm pronouncing 'amaranths' wrong, but that line has like ninety-seven stressed syllables in it, if you ask me.

[peccare.livejournal.com]

how do you say amaranths? i say AMaranths. am i embarrassingly wrong?

[gl-oriana.livejournal.com]

It's a weak line indeed, but then the character is weak.

just thought of this stanza

[fflo.livejournal.com]

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

Auden. Not that she's for sure doing that there. Just worth pondering.

[sliverofsanity.livejournal.com]

Icon love. Where did you get that picture? Who is the artist?

And I'm assuming that this "hate" is actually a mask for "love." I'm surprised by all of these comments looking at the syllables in the lines--I haven't yet had an official college course in poetry yet, though perhaps I'll pay attention to these thing once I do...I just like the imagery. I just don't know what the guy is mounting in the line As you mount, you flash in the glossy leaves. Is he climbing the tree up to her?

[zelley.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I remember seeing an excerpt of this poem in one of my school textbooks but never read the entire thing up until now. thanks for posting it!