"Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day"
About this Quote
The image also slips agency around in a very Frame-like way. Electricity becomes less a human invention than a force the elements collaborate with. Wires, usually emblems of control and progress, turn into instruments for something older and less governable. On a “gray day” the scene is drained of romance; it’s domestic bleakness, a New Zealand pragmatism of weather and routine. Against that flatness, peril feels sharper, like a sudden hum under the surface of normal life.
Subtextually, this is Frame’s familiar territory: the sense that reality is thin, that menace doesn’t arrive with dramatic fanfare but rides the small, continuous noises. Given her biography and recurring themes of vulnerability, perception, and the instability of the “everyday,” the line reads as a metaphor for mental and social danger too - the quiet voltage in systems that claim to be orderly. The genius is its restraint: one gray day, some wires, and the whole modern world is quietly electrified with threat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Frame, Janet. (2026, January 15). Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/electricity-the-peril-the-wind-sings-to-in-the-73921/
Chicago Style
Frame, Janet. "Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/electricity-the-peril-the-wind-sings-to-in-the-73921/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/electricity-the-peril-the-wind-sings-to-in-the-73921/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.










