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Fireworks Poem

fireworks poem


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Can you explain a literal translation of the poem "Fireworks" by Amy Lowell?

Literal Translation, like what they are saying literally.
Esp the first stanza.

Fireworks

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.

Amy Lowell

What don't you understand about the poem? Lowell uses exploding fireworks as a metaphor for two people's fierce emotions. The first two lines tell us that the two people hate each other, but that they always act polite when they happen to meet. The stanzas that offer blazing descriptions of the shapes and colors of a fireworks display aren't literally describing fireworks; they're describing the explosive emotions behind the polite facade that the two enemies try to keep up.

(Some readers might say that the descriptions of the two people's feelings are too passionate, too elaborate, too gloriously decorative to be all about hatred. Some readers might feel that the poem is really describing an unspoken love that lies beneath a layer of hatred. But I'm not sure the text supports such an interpretation.)


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Posted on January 18th, 2008

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