rhapsody

[Klimt]

1. Exalted or excessively enthusiastic expression of feeling in speech or writing.

2. A literary work written in an impassioned or exalted style.

3. A state of elated bliss; ecstasy.


His lips curled with contempt at the passionate rhapsody.

After uttering this rhapsody, the old gentleman snapped his fingers twenty or thirty times, and then subsided into an ecstatic contemplation of Miss La Creevy's charms

it was a vague and incomprehensible rhapsody, which, however, seemed to spread its own atmosphere round the hearer's soul, and to move his feelings by some influence unconnected with the words.

[Audiendus]

Further meanings:

4. An epic poem, or part of one, suitable for recitation.

5. A musical composition in free, irregular form, suggestive of improvisation, and of an emotional nature.

Obsolete meaning:

6. A medley, a miscellaneous collection, an unstructured group, a hodgepodge, a mishmash.

(From Greek rhaptein, to sew together, and oide, song.)

The modern meanings preserve part of the earlier one, in giving the idea of a disorganized stream of feelings welling up or pouring out. The implication is that, in art, emotion is incompatible with craftsmanship. Which is often true, but not always.

[LukeJavan8]

Rhapsody in Blue, magnificent.