Confusing Heroism With Howlings Poem by gershon hepner

He said the great composer had confused
heroism with howlings:
Schubert,1819, thus abused,
like villains of Ms. Rowling’s,
the art of magic. The way he raved
made Beethoven respond
with stunning silence, as the deaf man waved
his wizard writing wand.

Agreeably, his eccentricity
joined comic to the tragic,
propelled by the electricity
that wasn’t merely magic,
but came to him in thunderbolts. Franz, too,
composing in a blizzard
his last heroic works, howled his adieus,
neglected as a wizard.

Writing about Beethoven in his diary on June 16,1816, Schubert disclaimed the “eccentricity which joins the tragic with the comic, the agreeable with the repulsive, heroism with howlings, holiness with harlequinades”.


9/18/08