Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FREE THOUGHTS ON SEVERAL EMINENT COMPOSERS, by CHARLES LAMB Poet's Biography First Line: Some cry up haydn, some mozart Last Line: Because they're living; so I leave 'em. Alternate Author Name(s): Elia Subject(s): Composers | ||||||||
Some cry up Haydn, some Mozart, Just as the whim bites; for my part, I do not care a farthing candle For either of them, or for Handel. -- Cannot a man live free and easy, Without admiring Pergolesi? Or thro' the world with comfort go, That never heard of Doctor Blow? So help me God, I hardly have; And yet I eat, and drink, and shave, Like other people, if you watch it, And know no more of Stave or Crotchet, Than did the primitive Peruvians; Or those old ante-queer-Diluvians That lived in the unwash'd world with Tubal, Before that dirty blacksmith Jubal By stroke on anvil, or by summ'at, Found out, to his great surprise, the gamut. I care no more for Cimarosa, Than he did for Salvator Rosa, Being no painter; and bad luck Be mine, if I can bear that Gluck! Old Tycho Brahe, and modern Herschel, Had something in 'em; but who's Purcel? The devil, with his foot so cloven, For aught I care, may take Beethoven; And, if the bargain does not suit, I'll throw him Weber in to boot. There's not the splitting of a splinter To choose 'twixt him last named, and Winter. Of Doctor Pepusch old queen Dido Knew just as much, God knows, as I do. I would not go four miles to visit Sebastian Bach (or Batch, which is it?); No more I would for Bononcini. As for Novello, or Rossini, I shall not say a word to grieve 'em, Because they're living; so I leave 'em. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE COMPOSER'S WINTER DREAM by NORMAN DUBIE IN THE MUSIC COMPOSED BY NUTRITIOUS ALGAE by ANSELM HOLLO STREET CRIES: 6. TO RICHARD WAGNER by SIDNEY LANIER LEIPZIG, 1894 by WILLIAM MATTHEWS STOPPING SCHUBERT by GERALD STERN A FAREWELL TO TOBACCO by CHARLES LAMB |
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