‘Fireworks’ by Adam Sedia The Society July 4, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . The roar of battle rends the moonlit skyWith distant thunder as of cannons booming.And bursting, crashing, popping salvos flyAbove the roar, the whirr of rockets zooming. The din deceives, for when it yields to sightA fire-dance fills the sky whose salvo joltsBlithe, awestruck smiles to gasps of sheer delightThat brave the thunder to behold its bolts: Starbursts of crimson, purple, orange, and green; A blinding flash of white; a gold cascadeOr silver—sparkling fountains that careenLike champagne spritz; bright clustered stars bright-rayed; Or fire-sprites swirling in a spiral gyre,Whistling as they whirl into nothingness;Volcanic founts of sparks, pillars of fireAscending as they flare and incandesce. The bursting fires so dazzlingly arrayedBy art into this eye-bewitching showRain in bombs and roar in the cannonadeThat levels cities and lays legions low. And in their thunder rings the din of war,Echoes that inexorably portend The clash of battle never looming far,And bid the bursting sky-borne fires descend. . . Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana, with his wife, Ivana, and their children, and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. In addition to the Society’s publications, his poems and prose works have appeared in The Chained Muse Review, Indiana Voice Journal, and other literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 11 Responses Cynthia Erlandson July 4, 2021 Wow — absolutely beautiful! Reply Brian Yapko July 4, 2021 Agreed. This is stunningly beautiful, Adam! Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant July 4, 2021 Adam, this is a beautifully crafted poem that brings the busy skies of bursting fireworks to life, and leaves its subtle embers of wisdom cascading back down to earth in the closing stanza. Your poem is a pleasure to read. Reply Joseph S. Salemi July 4, 2021 The quatrains dazzle with their abundant use of sound and color — perfectly suited to a poem about a fireworks display. And I hope everyone notices that Mr. Sedia’s iambic pentameter is perfectly traditional and regular, employing a feminine rhyme in one place, and a few trochaic starts, and some internal substitutions. Reply Julian D. Woodruff July 5, 2021 A fine poem, Mr. Sedia. The ending’s sobering effect is startling, and reflects the fact that fireworks diplays were intended to impress in more ways than one. Reply Sally Cook July 4, 2021 Yoiur words crackle and snap, and your picture is complete. But there is also a warning by example. Very fine poem. Reply Roy E. Peterson July 4, 2021 “Fireworks” is a poem that scintillates with color and sound transporting one to the scene of the rockets zooming and sizzling flashes tumbling from the sky. Beautifully conceived and written. Reply Jess Sleight July 5, 2021 Loved ‘incandesce’ and the minds eye imagining all the colors as he wrote them. Lovely..and an always reminder of what the fireworks represent………thank you. Reply Adam Sedia July 5, 2021 Thank you, everyone for the remarks. I am truly thankful for the appreciation shown. I conceived the idea for this poem after listening to Stravinsky’s “Fireworks,” and thought I could achieve a picture through verse rather than music. On another note, Indiana has notoriously lax fireworks regulations, so I get some of the best shows just sitting on my porch and watching the neighbors’ fireworks. Last night didn’t disappoint. Reply Julian D. Woodruff July 6, 2021 I was thinking of Handel’s Fireworks Music as I was writing,and 2ndarily of Stravinsky. Happy listening! Reply BDW July 21, 2021 Because I am writing about everything I can, I am often late to e-mails and to commentaries. Recently I discovered a comment I had missed from 1 ½ years ago. Anyway…much about the poem reminds me of my youth, by topic and structure. I don’t know how many poems I’ve written on fireworks, metaphoric’lly and descriptively, but his poem in alternating rhymes of iambic pentameter is superior overall to any of them, particularly owing to his mastery of orchestral colouring, his visual instrumentation, and his content. In fact, Mr. Sedia’s “Fireworks” is the best poem on fireworks I can remember that I have ever read by any author; Mr. Woodriff, Ms. Cook, and Mr. Sleight all noting what is particularly remarkable about the piece. His own comment, however, sent me to Stravinsky’s “Fireworks”. Feu d’Artifice by Waldi Berceuse “fire sprites swirling in a spiral gyre,/ Whistling as they whirl into nothingness” —Adam Sedia, “Fireworks” Beginning with unfurling backing, flutes in frenzied quest to three-note whirls with horns, first-violins and trumpet’s zest, it builds, and beats, a runner’s heart in a one-minute’s dash, explosive fanfares, flying in to a percussive crash, which quiets to strange listless strains with languid peacefulness, a misty, eerie pausing, wonderful, mysterious, extending to a wistful, rimsky-korsakov-like rest, exotic, magical, an orchestrated restfulness; from which the twisting fantasy proceeds transparently, by clearing silence with its airs moved forth inerrantly, exquisite colourings in an incessantly busying, a twittering of glitter, layered flair, o, dizzying. Waldi Berceuse is a poet of Russian and other Slavic music. Russian Nationalist Composer Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was the teacher of Modernist Russian-American Composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), the author of “Feu d’Artifice”. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Susan Jarvis Bryant July 4, 2021 Adam, this is a beautifully crafted poem that brings the busy skies of bursting fireworks to life, and leaves its subtle embers of wisdom cascading back down to earth in the closing stanza. Your poem is a pleasure to read. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi July 4, 2021 The quatrains dazzle with their abundant use of sound and color — perfectly suited to a poem about a fireworks display. And I hope everyone notices that Mr. Sedia’s iambic pentameter is perfectly traditional and regular, employing a feminine rhyme in one place, and a few trochaic starts, and some internal substitutions. Reply
Julian D. Woodruff July 5, 2021 A fine poem, Mr. Sedia. The ending’s sobering effect is startling, and reflects the fact that fireworks diplays were intended to impress in more ways than one. Reply
Sally Cook July 4, 2021 Yoiur words crackle and snap, and your picture is complete. But there is also a warning by example. Very fine poem. Reply
Roy E. Peterson July 4, 2021 “Fireworks” is a poem that scintillates with color and sound transporting one to the scene of the rockets zooming and sizzling flashes tumbling from the sky. Beautifully conceived and written. Reply
Jess Sleight July 5, 2021 Loved ‘incandesce’ and the minds eye imagining all the colors as he wrote them. Lovely..and an always reminder of what the fireworks represent………thank you. Reply
Adam Sedia July 5, 2021 Thank you, everyone for the remarks. I am truly thankful for the appreciation shown. I conceived the idea for this poem after listening to Stravinsky’s “Fireworks,” and thought I could achieve a picture through verse rather than music. On another note, Indiana has notoriously lax fireworks regulations, so I get some of the best shows just sitting on my porch and watching the neighbors’ fireworks. Last night didn’t disappoint. Reply
Julian D. Woodruff July 6, 2021 I was thinking of Handel’s Fireworks Music as I was writing,and 2ndarily of Stravinsky. Happy listening! Reply
BDW July 21, 2021 Because I am writing about everything I can, I am often late to e-mails and to commentaries. Recently I discovered a comment I had missed from 1 ½ years ago. Anyway…much about the poem reminds me of my youth, by topic and structure. I don’t know how many poems I’ve written on fireworks, metaphoric’lly and descriptively, but his poem in alternating rhymes of iambic pentameter is superior overall to any of them, particularly owing to his mastery of orchestral colouring, his visual instrumentation, and his content. In fact, Mr. Sedia’s “Fireworks” is the best poem on fireworks I can remember that I have ever read by any author; Mr. Woodriff, Ms. Cook, and Mr. Sleight all noting what is particularly remarkable about the piece. His own comment, however, sent me to Stravinsky’s “Fireworks”. Feu d’Artifice by Waldi Berceuse “fire sprites swirling in a spiral gyre,/ Whistling as they whirl into nothingness” —Adam Sedia, “Fireworks” Beginning with unfurling backing, flutes in frenzied quest to three-note whirls with horns, first-violins and trumpet’s zest, it builds, and beats, a runner’s heart in a one-minute’s dash, explosive fanfares, flying in to a percussive crash, which quiets to strange listless strains with languid peacefulness, a misty, eerie pausing, wonderful, mysterious, extending to a wistful, rimsky-korsakov-like rest, exotic, magical, an orchestrated restfulness; from which the twisting fantasy proceeds transparently, by clearing silence with its airs moved forth inerrantly, exquisite colourings in an incessantly busying, a twittering of glitter, layered flair, o, dizzying. Waldi Berceuse is a poet of Russian and other Slavic music. Russian Nationalist Composer Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was the teacher of Modernist Russian-American Composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), the author of “Feu d’Artifice”. Reply