HIGH FIDELITY

If I could, Odysseus or Faust-like,

Converse with one of the towering dead,

I would summon George Frideric Handel

Who chose perfection of the work - His

life, ordinary, except for trips

On the Continent by carriage

To recruit castrati to trill

In his operas, trips to Bath

For the fashionable cures, trips

To Hanover to console his mother.

A friend of Pope, he had no ear

For English, even sweet Italian

Was clotted with his gutturals.

He composed alone, a bachelor

Wedded to music, mostly famous

In London—there, An Institution.

He did see the Great God Himself once

While he penned The Hallelujah;

The Great King George Himself

Stood up at the performance.

Shades

Of the Past, conduct him hither

Through System II of my new stereo.