Pigmas 5 January

[dukealien]

His Point


Names mean things.  Ludwig van Beethoven
(whose name just means “Lewie from Holland”)
stood Dutch uncle to
all composers ever after but he said of Bach
(whose name means “creek” or “brook”)
that Bach is more like an ocean.

Is.

Which brings us to that other member
of the Muses’ pantheon
William Shakspur - or “Shakespeare,” as
it reads more tellingly
but spur or speare the man
has a point.  His little comedies
his histories, all drawn from life
or anyway conceptions of it
taking a commonplace of
slightly post-Viking Danish politics
and making it retell
an educated man caught up
in family biology unsure
of what blood demands
and what he owes to it.

Spur or speare we get
dead William’s point
and Bach’s catchy rivulet
upon a common theme like Jesus
joy of man’s desiring or His passion
gets around us and we can’t
not enjoy or dam his oceanic
melody out of our minds.

And old Dutchman Lewie
also setting joy to music–
points we can’t evade because
they impale us harder than
a poisoned rapier and we die
immortally.