Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 5-8
Till day rose; then under an orange sky
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.
- The wind stampedes through fields and crashes through woods until daybreak. But when the sun comes up, it's still going.
- Our speaker says that the "hills had new places," implying that the wind was so strong that it actually moved the hills around. This is a far-out example of hyperbole.
- The wind now wields "blade-light." Since the wind moves the clouds, it controls how the light comes down, moving the scattered rays like blades. It's hard to say why the blade-light is "luminous black and emerald."
- Maybe this is just a far-out way of describing the strange shades and effects of the light filtering through the moving clouds.
- Using a simile, the speaker compares the movement of the light to the swiveling of the lens of a mad eye—it's swirling around in a disturbing way.
- Finally, there's a bit of alliteration in these lines, with "wind wielded." "Sound Check" has more on that for you.