Music's Spell
For readers hoping to turn a daily commute into moments of magic, or to convert a wait in a long line into a lyrical delight, here鈥檚 a suggestion: Try putting some poetry in your pocket.聽
More specifically, find a copy of Music鈥檚 Spell: Poems About Music and Musicians edited by Emily Fragos. It is the newest installment in a series of pocket-sized poetry anthologies published in classy (on fine paper and festooned with a ribbon bookmark), bargain-priced, hardcover editions by Everyman鈥檚 Library Pocket Poets series.
This is a collection of 162 poems by both the famous and obscure about the power of music and musicians, and you鈥檒l likely find several dozen of these works are capable of setting your pulse racing and mind happily meandering.
The poems in 鈥淢usic鈥檚 Spell鈥� are slotted into categories (such as 鈥淧op and Rock,鈥� 鈥淛azz and Blues,鈥� 鈥淐lassical Composers,鈥� 鈥淧ractice,鈥� 鈥淢usic and Love鈥�), but don鈥檛 take these divides too seriously. This tiny, winsome collection invites random sampling.
Most poems fit one page. The expected selections include Shakespeare (鈥淚f music be the food of love, play on!鈥�), several 19th-century English romantic poets, and Walt Whitman.
But the surprises are particular delights. The Caribbean poet Kamau Brathwaite, better known for reggae poetry from his former homeland, Jamaica, offers a heartbreaking homage to the jazz great John Coltrane (鈥渉e leans and wishes he could burn/ his memories to ashes like some old notorious emperor鈥�).
Joyce Carol Oates, better known for her fiction than poetry, shines in a poem written from the viewpoint of a dinner waitress serving Elvis (鈥渁ren鈥檛 you feeling my face burn but/ he was the kind of boy even meanness turned sweet in/ his mouth鈥�).
And the Chinese poet Chang-Wou-Kien in 鈥淭he Pavilion of Music鈥� requires only 23 words to compare the fading notes of musicians to lilacs that bend in the rich silence that follows a stellar performance.
Discovering the music of poetry requires that poems be read aloud, and a number of these poems invite exactly that. Note the impact of word choice and punctuation in Whitman鈥檚 鈥淏eat! Beat! Drums!鈥�:
Beat! beat! drums! 鈥� blow!聽 bugles!聽 blow!
Through the windows 鈥� through doors 鈥� burst like a ruthless force,
This sets up a percussive cadence much like conga drummers jamming in a park on a summer鈥檚 day. And note how Allen Ginsberg鈥檚 鈥淔irst Party at Ken Kesey鈥檚 With Hell鈥檚 Angels鈥� explodes with the crackling, rolling, roiling energy of rock 鈥檔鈥� roll:
In the huge
wooden house, a yellow聽 chandelier
at 3 a.m. the blast of loudspeakers
hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles
Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths
dancing to the vibration thru the floor.
And Wallace Stevens serves the refined trills of classical music in 鈥�Mozart, 1935鈥�:
Poet, be seated at the piano.
Play the present, its hoo-hoo-hoo,
Its shoo-shoo-shoo, its ric-a-nic,
Its envious cachinnation
This book鈥檚 only competitor, 鈥淭he Music Lover鈥檚 Anthology鈥� edited by Helen Handley Houghton and Maureen M. Draper, doesn鈥檛 fit in a pocket, costs twice as much, and omits Shakespeare. But it does include Jack Kerouac and Pablo Neruda. Poetry lovers will want both.
Norman Weinstein is a contributor to the Monitor鈥檚 Culture section.
