Does anyone have any insight on the meaning of it? I asked a friend (who majored in English and all that crap in college) and here's some of what she got out of it. It's mostly all paraphrased, aside from my own words, which are in parenthesis...
Azure-Lidded World
Azure is the color blue, the Earth is blue (for the most part). Lids is another word for caps, so perhaps that refers to the ice caps...
Like a kiss, soft, and wild with the delicate steps of petals fallen in a stream
This swirling ballerina turns in faint and sighing grandeur
Across the floor to me.
A monarch plays the violin to a summer's afternoon
Whilst quietly the earthworm adores the soil in winter's sparkling gloom
It breaks away, growing as the flowers do.
The whole first paragraph is a commentary on the Earth's motion and the motion of the creatures and things on it. "Like a kiss, soft, and wild with the delicate steps of petals fallen in a stream"...he is likening the movement of our rivers and streams to footsteps.
"This swirling ballerina turns in faint and sighing grandeur Across the floor to me"...picture the Earth from afar. The white swirls of our clouds and weather patterns could look like the fluffy tulle of a ballerina.
"A monarch plays the violin to a summer's afternoon"...he is referring to a butterfly's flight and comparing its the beauty of its movement to that of music/the playing of music.
"Whilst quietly the earthworm adores the soil in winter's sparkling gloom, It breaks away, growing as the flowers do"...the worm aerates (sp?) soil, deep underground, even though the earth is barren and covered with winter, enabling the flowers to have moist and fertile grown from which to grow and bloom. The "It breaks away" line throws me a little bit. I assume it means the movement of the earth again in some capacity.
A thunderhead embraces his enraptured lover
And kisses with a gale that also makes the cattails shudder.
His tears cannot, as he proclaims his love, be held with lightning back;
They fondly dance into an open window
And fondly dance with mine.
Not too hard to understand, I think. Perhaps the thunderhead's lover is the sky...
Our eyelashes weaken with a weight that is sweet and fine,
And this feels like frogs and spiders in the sweet outside.
Tell me why world, unfathomable and good,
The beauty of everything is infinite and cruel.
I believe he is referring to to mountains, land in general. Wearing away over time. And what is sweeter and finer than time... time with people and places we love?
(I was still confused about the frogs and spiders line, so I inquired further...)
Well.. lets see. He's turning to the negative. Our eyelashes weaken... the earth weakens and wears down with time... and OURS weaken with the tears of sorrow and pain.
The frogs and spiders are interesting. After all..they are NEEDED... they are some of the most vital parts of the lower food chain. Both spiders and frogs eat other insects.. kind of a pest removal. And yet.. both are feared and quite ugly. They are a beautiful thing.. they do the earth good... and yet.. are so unappealing. They are cruel.. bringers of death.. yet beautiful..(so basically, for all the beauty in the world, there has to be some ugliness as well)
(Interesting. This still leaves the last few lines, which I don't understand at all. If anyone can provide anything at all on the entire poem, feel free to respond.)
Azure-Lidded World
Azure is the color blue, the Earth is blue (for the most part). Lids is another word for caps, so perhaps that refers to the ice caps...
Like a kiss, soft, and wild with the delicate steps of petals fallen in a stream
This swirling ballerina turns in faint and sighing grandeur
Across the floor to me.
A monarch plays the violin to a summer's afternoon
Whilst quietly the earthworm adores the soil in winter's sparkling gloom
It breaks away, growing as the flowers do.
The whole first paragraph is a commentary on the Earth's motion and the motion of the creatures and things on it. "Like a kiss, soft, and wild with the delicate steps of petals fallen in a stream"...he is likening the movement of our rivers and streams to footsteps.
"This swirling ballerina turns in faint and sighing grandeur Across the floor to me"...picture the Earth from afar. The white swirls of our clouds and weather patterns could look like the fluffy tulle of a ballerina.
"A monarch plays the violin to a summer's afternoon"...he is referring to a butterfly's flight and comparing its the beauty of its movement to that of music/the playing of music.
"Whilst quietly the earthworm adores the soil in winter's sparkling gloom, It breaks away, growing as the flowers do"...the worm aerates (sp?) soil, deep underground, even though the earth is barren and covered with winter, enabling the flowers to have moist and fertile grown from which to grow and bloom. The "It breaks away" line throws me a little bit. I assume it means the movement of the earth again in some capacity.
A thunderhead embraces his enraptured lover
And kisses with a gale that also makes the cattails shudder.
His tears cannot, as he proclaims his love, be held with lightning back;
They fondly dance into an open window
And fondly dance with mine.
Not too hard to understand, I think. Perhaps the thunderhead's lover is the sky...
Our eyelashes weaken with a weight that is sweet and fine,
And this feels like frogs and spiders in the sweet outside.
Tell me why world, unfathomable and good,
The beauty of everything is infinite and cruel.
I believe he is referring to to mountains, land in general. Wearing away over time. And what is sweeter and finer than time... time with people and places we love?
(I was still confused about the frogs and spiders line, so I inquired further...)
Well.. lets see. He's turning to the negative. Our eyelashes weaken... the earth weakens and wears down with time... and OURS weaken with the tears of sorrow and pain.
The frogs and spiders are interesting. After all..they are NEEDED... they are some of the most vital parts of the lower food chain. Both spiders and frogs eat other insects.. kind of a pest removal. And yet.. both are feared and quite ugly. They are a beautiful thing.. they do the earth good... and yet.. are so unappealing. They are cruel.. bringers of death.. yet beautiful..(so basically, for all the beauty in the world, there has to be some ugliness as well)
(Interesting. This still leaves the last few lines, which I don't understand at all. If anyone can provide anything at all on the entire poem, feel free to respond.)
