Bronze Trumpets and Sea Water - On Turning Latin into English

Elinor Morton Wylie 1885 (Somerville, New Jersey) – 1928 (New York City, New York)



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 trumpets of Cæsar'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 smoothes the ripples out of it.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

23 sec read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX BXBX CDCD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 431
Words 76
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Elinor Morton Wylie

Elinor Morton Wylie was an American poet and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s. "She was famous during her life almost as much for her ethereal beauty and personality as for her melodious, sensuous poetry." more…

All Elinor Morton Wylie poems | Elinor Morton Wylie Books

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