The Mandolin

[crow]

Rip it apart 

The Mandolin
--the title indicates this will be an ode on an object which is a musical instrument, a mandolin. Mandolins are soprano stringed instruments that evolved from the lute in the mid-1700s.

Made for the monster[,]
--is the monster commerce? audiences who found lutes inaudible? This is shaky footing to begin with . . . Who is doing the making?
[p]layed by the pauper[,]
--paupers would likely not have had access to mandolins; this romanticization detracts from the sincerity of the ode
[a]ged by the sage[,]
--mandolins are not "aged," in any formal sense that I know, so this confuses me
[l]oved by the lunatic[—]
--again, I can't relate this to the instrument or its origins
[its] neck broken by the bastard.
—what bastard?

Played before kings,
—maybe, but which kings?
[s]ang shivers and dreams,
—unlike bowed instruments, mandolins are plucked, and therefore can't be said to "sing"
[w]as a woman[,]
a lover[,]
a poet[,]
a thing...

Now waits mounted
on a poor man's wall,
—why? who is the poor man?
[f]or a master to recall:
the hidden,
the myster[ious],
the music[al][—]
its all in all.
--the last line is a punt