Words and Music: An Argument

She searched and found

(He smiles)

She searched and she found amid his starry prose she found

(he smiles, he smiles at her lyrics)

She, she searched and found a sentence made of clay

(of love of love and loss)

Of clay, cigars, and idle words

A slip from the story of genius

(Since she, like Schumann)

From the story of genius

(loses her way in thickets of metaphor

That booted, that booted him

(Drowns like mad Ophelia)

Out of everyday life and ordinary goals

(Ophelia in the wake of words, wake of words)

(He bids she leave her antique phrases)

Of clay, cigars and idle words

(And become a modern voice)

Yet he speaks of Brahms

And taking the baths at Baden-Baden

Of Ives and the Adirondack hills,

And moonlight walks along the Housatonic.

He speaks of one who is deaf,

Deaf as the black of night.

She fails and speaks of Dante

Of Botticelli brows and David’s hand

She writes of Warsaw and Chopin

And the lost bright bracelet of her days.

She begs him to abandon words

For the great strong winds of his music

(No, no, no, no, no, no)

And songs brought down

Like crazy family from the attic

               

But no, he tells he will write of Mozart

(She gasps, she gasps)

Now that Brahms has filled his pages

(She gasps)

But like others will relish his words

And wait in patience for his music should it come.

No, yes, yes,

(Yes, no )

Now is the time for music

(Now is the time for music)

For songs shot through with quiet obsession

(For songs shot through with quiet obsession)

With naked anguish

(With naked anguish)

For the meaning of meaning

(For the meaning of meaning)

The inevitable, the inevitable bloom

(The inevitable, the inevitable bloom)

And, and, and sweet dangers of the waltz

(And, and, and sweet dangers of the waltz)

The waltz

(The waltz)

Now is the time

(Now is the time)

Now is the time

(Now is the time)

Now is the time

(Now is the time)

The time

(The time)