Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/49

Rh "Count Pretzel von Würzburger, the Obscene (The beggar may have had another name, But no man to my knowledge ever knew it) Was a poet and a skeptic and a critic, And in his own mad manner a musician: He had found an old piano in a bar-room, And it was his career—three nights a week, From ten o'clock till twelve—to make it rattle; And then, when I was just far down enough To sit and watch him with his long straight hair, And pity him, and think he looked like Liszt, I might have glorified a musical Steam-engine, or a xylophone. The Count Played half of everything and 'improvised' The rest: he told me once that he was born With a genius in him that 'prohibited Complete fidelity,' and that his art 'Confessed vagaries,' therefore. But I made Kind reckoning of his vagaries then: I had the whole great pathos of the man To purify me, and all sorts of music To give me spiritual nourishment And cerebral athletics; for the Count Played indiscriminately—with an f, And with incurable presto—cradle-songs And carnivals, spring-songs and funeral marches,