In a poem, a man with this profession dreams that a nighttime carriage ride takes him to the battleship Sevastopol, whose crew forces him to operate “the device that is used to power naval ships.” For 10 points each:
[10h] Certain objects are called “so heavy they should be rushed / to Padua’s mineralogical institute for analysis” in a poem that centers on “a father-in-law and a son-in-law” with what profession?
ANSWER: composer [prompt on musician]
[10e] Tomas Tranströmer's poem “The Sorrow Gondola (no. 2)” imagines this composer and his father-in-law visiting the Grand Canal. This composer called poetry a “lonely, sullen sister” in his essay “The Artwork of the Future.”
ANSWER: Richard Wagner [or Wilhelm Richard Wagner]
[10m] A section of this long Tranströmer poem tells the story of an unnamed composer who keeps writing music even after suffering a stroke. This poem, which is titled for a sea, begins “It was before the time of radio masts.”
ANSWER: Baltics [or Östersjöar] (Tranströmer suffered a stroke himself 16 years after writing Baltics. After a protracted convalescence, he then published The Sorrow Gondola.)
<Henry Goff, European Literature>