Chapter 3Flame-Wind

Poems in Quantitative Metres Flame-Wind3 A flame-wind ran from the gold of the east, Leaped on my soul with the breath of a sevenfold noon. Wings of the angel, gallop of the beast! Mind and body on fire, but the heart in swoon. O flame, thou bringest the strength of the noon, But where are the voices of morn and the stillness of eve? Where the pale-blue wine of the moon? Mind and life are in flower, but the heart must grieve. Gold in the mind and the life-flame’s red Make of the heavens a splendour, the earth a blaze, But the white and rose of the heart are dead. Flame-wind, pass! I will wait for Love in the silent ways. 3 Dactylic tetrameter and pentameter catalectic; an additional foot in the last line; trochee or spondee freely admitted anywhere; first paeon, antibacchius, cretic can replace a dactyl. One or two extra syllables are allowed sometimes at the beginning of the line.