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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE ANGER OF BEETHOVEN by RICHARD WATSON GILDER

First Line: THIS NIGHT THE ENCHANTING MUSICIANS RENDERED A TRIO OF BEETHOVEN
Last Line: AND IN ART SUPREME, IMMORTAL, THE INFAMOUS ARROWS OF FORTUNE.
Subject(s): ANGER; BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN (1770-1827); COMPOSERS; MUSIC & MUSICIANS;

THIS night the enchanting musicians rendered a trio of Beethoven, --
Light and lovely, or solemn, as in a Tuscan tower
The walls with gracious tapestries gleam, and the deep-cut windows
Give on landscapes gigantic, framing the four-square world, --
When sudden the music turned to anger, as nature's murmur
Sometimes to anger turns, speaking, in voice infuriate,
Cruel, quick, implacable; inhuman, savage, resistless, --
And I thought of that sensitive spirit flinging back in
scorn tempestuous,
And in art supreme, immortal, the infamous arrows of fortune.



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