Secrets of the Great Composers

We write what music’s in our hearts
in manuscript of blood and nerve:
to wrap the primal fish of art

no lesser parchment serves.
None so plainly signifies
the variations we observe:

iubilate, track of fly,
oratorio of gall,
heavy metal lullaby.

Composer, fiddle, fiddler, hall,
we count the quavers, score the parts
to songs we learned when we were small.