A Brief History of Romance

Because history is a circle
It's incumbent upon the storyteller
To select a point of origin
Which would otherwise be arbitrary.

The ghosts of the French nobility released by the guillotine
Blew first across the English Channel to cheery old England.

In those days George 3 had mad itching syphilis
He heard directly the whispers of the ghosts who reported
All of England in a dreary mood
Revolution on everyone's lips
Red berets apparent upon the heads of the populace
Blake tried for sedition.

The ghosts eventually lost their individual voices
Congealing into a more generalized romantic spirit
Inspiring for a time, an aesthetic revolution in English poetry.
The philosophical keys of romance remain forever hidden
In a library of books clapped shut, or they have fallen down
Between the cushions of Wordsworth's eternal couch.

By 1830 the romantic spirit had grown tired of England
Blowing back then to Germany
To witness the hysteria of German nationalism
And to listen to wonderful music
Perhaps voyaging south to Italy
An operatic echo heard along the Alpine range
A green tune by Verdi you can't get out of your head.

This is where it gets complicated. My theory is
That in 1845 the spirit of romance was in a cafe in Paris
Drinking absinthe when he overheard some fellows discussing
Traveling to America and because he had always found
Himself to have a metropolitan appetite being never satisfied
With his present place or time he decided to travel. Yes to America
But also to Russia where in 1865 he witnessed not only
The end of the American Civil war but he also
Caught the premiere of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
A book he had always loved.

The work moved him so much that he decided
To retire to Saint Petersburg and spent his remaining years
Listening to Russian music and becoming embroiled in
In its vibrant and decadent culture until he finally
Was trampled to death
At the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.