Eclectic Rhapsodics

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Shelley's Skylark (1:44)

by Thomas Hardy

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The neighbourhood of Leghorn: March, 1887

Somewhere afield here something lies

In Earth’s oblivious eyeless trust

That moved a poet to prophecies—

A pinch of unseen, unguarded dust

The dust of the lark that Shelley heard,

And made immortal through times to be;—

Though it only lived like another bird,

And knew not its immortality.

Lived its meek life; then, one day, fell—

A little ball of feather and bone;

And how it perished, when piped farewell,

And where it wastes, are alike unknown.

Maybe it rests in the loam I view,

Maybe it throbs in a myrtle’s green,

Maybe it sleeps in the coming hue

Of a grape on the slopes of yon inland scene.

Go find it, faeries, go and find

That tiny pinch of priceless dust,

And bring a casket silver-lined,

And framed of gold that gems encrust;

And we will lay it safe therein,

And consecrate it to endless time;

For it inspired a bard to win

Ecstatic heights in thought and rhyme.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

On the Cliffs, Newport (1:18)

by Alan Seeger

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Tonight a shimmer of gold lies mantled o'er

Smooth lovely Ocean. Through the lustrous gloom

A savor steals from linden trees in bloom

And gardens ranged at many a palace door.

Proud walls rise here, and, where the moonbeams pour

Their pale enchantment down the dim coast-line,

Terrace and lawn, trim hedge and flowering vine,

Crown with fair culture all the sounding shore.

How sweet, to such a place, on such a night,

From halls with beauty and festival a-glare,

To come distract and, stretched on the cool turf,

Yield to some fond, improbable delight,

While the moon, reddening, sinks, and all the air

Sighs with the muffled tumult of the surf!

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Sympathy (1:28)

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting--

I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, / that upward to Heaven he flings--

I know why the caged bird sings!

Monday, June 15, 2020

She Lay All Naked

(Painting by Amadeo Modigliani)

Listen to:

She Lay All Naked (2:08)

by Anonymous

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

She lay all naked in her bed,

And I myself lay by;

No veil but curtains about her spread,

No covering but I:

Her head upon her shoulders seeks

To hang in careless wise,

And full of blushes was her cheeks,

And of wishes were her eyes.

Her blood still fresh into her face,

As on a message came,

To say that in another place

It meant another game;

Her cherry lip moist, plump, and fair,

Millions of kisses crown,

Which ripe and uncropped dangle there,

And weigh the branches down.

Her breasts, that welled so plump and high

Bred pleasant pain in me,

For all the world I do defy

The like felicity;

Her thighs and belly, soft and fair,

To me were only shown:

To have seen such meat, and not to have eat,

Would have angered any stone.

Her knees lay upward gently bent,

And all lay hollow under,

As if on easy terms, they meant

To fall unforced asunder;

Just so the Cyprian Queen did lie,

Expecting in her bower;

When too long stay had kept the boy

Beyond his promised hour.

‘Dull clown,’ quoth she, ‘why dost delay

such proffered bliss to take?

Canst thou find out no other way

Similitudes to make?’

Mad with delight I – thundering -

Throw my arms about her,

But pox upon’t ’twas but a dream.

And so I lay without her.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

A Mocking-Bird (:45)

by Witter Bynner

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

An arrow, feathery, alive,

He darts and sings,—

Then with a sudden skimming dive

Of striped wings

He finds a pine and, debonair,

Makes with his mate

All birds that ever rested there

Articulate.

The whisper of a multitude

Of happy wings

Is round him, a returning brood,

Each time he sings.

Though heaven be not for them or him

Yet he is wise,

And daily tiptoes on the rim

Of paradise.

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Reconciliation (:59)

by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born on this day in 1865

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Some may have blamed you that you took away
The verses that could move them on the day
When, the ears being deafened, the sight of the eyes blind

With lightning you went from me, and I could find

Nothing to make a song about but kings,
Helmets, and swords, and half-forgotten things
That were like memories of you—but now
We’ll out, for the world lives as long ago;
And while we’re in our laughing, weeping fit,
Hurl helmets, crowns, and swords into the pit.
But, dear, cling close to me; since you were gone,
My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone.