O Cryptic! My Cryptic!

Question

^{An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix}

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Please find below a poetic cryptic crossword. A very tiny cryptic crossword, because each cryptic clue is a poem. I must beg your indulgence in advance...since this is a tag mix, I felt the need to balance my respect for the form, rhyme and meter of the poetry against the Ximenean purity of the cryptic clues. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

ACROSS

1

Heliconia
Verges on pink, evenly.
You, becoming I?

5

Arthur's first sword, took from stone,
Left England at the last.
Retrogressing to the home,
where ships that founder rest.

6

It's a thing you will see in this rhyme
Thirteen-fold if your counting's sublime.
With a piece of your neck
Held to keep you in check,
Mark off all but the last one, this time.

7

Of all the kine and goats I got
from her Pop at our weddin',
tuberculous head, heart are found
in male kid, upsettin'

DOWN

1

             animals
     freshwater, inverterbrate
    flailing, unaging, radiating
microorganism, monster, making, myth
   alternating, tumbling, voiding
           dolor, almost
            everywhere

2

An em'rald, on a sapphire sea,
Long held in bond, but now is free
To nadir, abrogating plea
At last, unchained o'er blasted lea

3

YOU NEVER!
left us behind.
STOP!
the recrimination.
VIOLENT ENDS!
held in reserve.

4

Wound from which heart has passed;
sheltering, wherein caught
By wicked lady. Cast
into a bit of thought,
lyrical, measured 'gainst
prosody, past and hence

HINT

5A should be parsed as (4,3). 3D is an unusual modification of a common word, while 7A is fairly obscure. But also keep in mind that I really took the poetry tag to heart when writing this. In keeping with the poetry theme, there is certainly lyrical license taken, but I tried to keep it in definitions, both for the answers and for words that may be used in wordplay.

OLD INCORRECT CLUE

Former clue for 3D, left here to remind me of my blunder:

GO BACK!
on your promise?
YOU NEVER!
left us behind.
WE ARE!
without an end?

Answer 1

Let's see if we can lift the lid,
Upon this puzzle's finished grid:

And now unspoiler (if you choose),
For explanations of the clues:

ACROSS:

1. 'HA' from 'Heliconia' verges,
'pInK' evenly - 'IK' emerges.
A soundalike for 'you' is 'U,
This verse was written in HAIKU!

5. "Arthur's first" yields letter 'A',
A sword in fencing's an EPEE.
'Stone' left is 'S', last 'EnglanD', 'D,
All back (the 'S' inside): DEEP SEA!

6. 'A piece of a neck' bestows 'A NAPE',
All but the last of '(-thi)S' escape.
Time is 'T', then - yes, you've guessed -
In this limerick, thirteen ANAPESTs!

7. 'Male kid, upset' is DAL (good start),
'Tuberculous' head is 'T', LOVE means 'heart'.
In tennis, that's an 'O' - in total,
Our dowry clue should give us DOTAL!

DOWN:

1. Alternate and tumble 'mYtH' - 'HY' is what you see.
Then voiding 'D(-olo)R' gives 'DR; 'Almost Everywhere': 'AE'.
Then noting that the first half is some ?double definitions,
Soon the answer HYDRAE should invade your field of vision!

2. An anagram of 'N(-a)DIR' less 'A' (the last of 'plea'),
All 'o'er' (around) an anagram of blasted little 'LEA'.
Look hard to spot what you can make - in just a little while,
You'll find the name of IRELAND, the famous Emerald Isle!

3. 'You' is 'U, 'Never' left 'N',
'uS' behind is 'S' and then...
(-sto)P (-th)E (-recriminatio)N and '(-violen)T' ends gives 'PENT',
'Held in reserve'? Why, surely that could only be UNSPENT!

4. 'Wound' is CUT, remove its heart,
That's 'U' got rid of - done one part...
In a wicked LADY's anagram,
And DACTYL says, "Well, here I am!"

Now all is said and all is done.
In solving this I had great fun :)
And so it's absolutely time,
To cease this speaking all in rhyme!