"The mare set off for home with the speed of a swallow, and going as smoothly and silently. I never had dreamed of such a motion, fluent and graceful, and ambient, soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, but swift as the summer lightening"
- Richard Blackmore
About this Quote
In this evocative passage, Richard Blackmore crafts a vibrant picture of a mare galloping with unbridled elegance and speed. This contrast to a swallow, understood for its swift and darting flight, paints an image of the mare moving with both grace and rapidity. The idea of a swallow recommends not simply speed but likewise a natural, uncomplicated movement.
The language stresses the mare's fluidity and smoothness, creating a practically dreamlike quality to its movement. Words like "silently," "fluent," "stylish," and "ambient" recommend an ethereal, almost otherworldly quality. The horse seems to move across the landscape with the ease of a gentle breeze flowing over flowers, enhancing the concept of harmony between the mare and nature. This harmonious relationship even more communicates the mare's natural grace and freedom, highlighting the cooperative relationship between living beings and their environment.
In addition, the comparison to "the summer lightning" presents a note of intensity and drama. Summertime lightning fasts, effective, and brilliant, and by comparing the mare's speed to this natural phenomenon, Blackmore raises the mare's movement to a nearly sublime level, combining natural grace with astonishing speed.
Overall, Blackmore uses these contrasts to stress the horse's majestic appeal and dynamic vitality. The mare is depicted almost as a personification of the best union in between nature's appeal and power. Through this poetic prose, Blackmore invites readers to imagine and feel the spectacular experience of riding such a spectacular animal, recording not only the physical sensation but also the psychological and spiritual uplift that features entering into such an elegant, unstoppable force of nature. The passage commemorates the transcendence of ordinary experience through the extensive connection with the natural world, embodied in the image of the mare quickly and gracefully returning home.
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