Verse
If you are not averse to verse, here are some lines on the Royal Academy of Music's Harp Ensemble who did a concert as part of the Norfolk & Norwich festival in May. Although several decades ago, Ossian Ellis was a famous male harpist, I am struck by the fact that these days I never see a male harpist.
The RAM Harp Ensemble
Six beauties harpistic
All feminine mystique
With talents Marxistic
(tendence Harpo-istique)
Hair is unbounded, allowed to be flowing,
Locks hang loose to the neck all around,
two black, three frizzed, one blonde – all a-blowing
the mind as my ears sing with their sound.
Only one, I see, is a fair English rose,
but the others smile softly, with eyes like gazelles’.
Six beauties harpistic
All feminine mystique
With talents Marxistic
(tendence Harpo-istique)
Garments are black, harps are of gold;
Fabrics in harmony, celestial sound.
Angels above, we are regularly told,
Play harps in the clouds when the soul’s underground:
My ear is absorbed, my eyes can but stare,
Heaven I gather is an all-girl affair.
© Tim Cawkwell 2008