Collected Works (Vol. I)

228 TANNHAUSER Still, I must see his symbol of the Sun, The Winepress, and the Beauty! Puerile And pagan to that old mysterious one, The awful Light and the anointed Vial, The Dawning of the Blood, even as a smile :— Even asa smile on Beauty’s burning cheek— Ha! Inacircle? As this journey is? How vain is man’s imagining and weak ! Begod! my lady, and my lady’s kiss? Back swing we to the pitiful abyss, Liken God’s being to the life of man. So reason staggers. Angels, answer me ! Ye who have watched the far unfolding plan— How is time shorter than eternity? Prove it and weigh! By mind it cannot be. All our divisions spring in our own brain. See! As upsprings on the horizon there A clefted hill contemptuous of the plain. (Why, which is higher?) I am in despair. Let me essay the Pharaoh and his prayer ! [TANNHAUSER speaks the Word of Double Power. Oh God, Thy blinding beauty, and the light Shed from Thy shoulders, and the golden night Of mingling fire and stars and roses swart In the long flame of hair that leaps athwart, Live in each tingling gossamer! Dread eyes! Each flings its arrow of sharp sacrifice, Eating me up with poison! I am hurled Far through the vaporous confines of the world With agony of sundering sense, beholding Thy mighty flower, blood-coloured death, unfolding ! Lithe limbs and supple shoulders and lips curled, Curled out to draw me to their monstrous world ! 1 To invest with divine attributes. Warm breasts that glow with light ephemeral And move with passionate music to en- thral, To charm, to enchant, to seal the entrancing breath. I fall! Stop! Spare me!—Slay me! [TANNHAUSER enters into an ecstasy. This is death. [The evil and averse HATHOOR, or VENUS, who hath arisen in the place of the Great Goddess, lifteth up her voice and chanteth :— VENUS. Isis am I, and from my life are fed All showers and suns, all moons that wax and wane, All stars and streams, the living and the dead, The mystery of pleasure and of pain. I am the mother! I the speaking sea ! I am the earth and its fertility ! Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, return tO me— To me! Hathoodr am I, and to my beauty drawn All glories of the Universe bow down, The blossom and the mountain and the dawn, Fruit’s blush, and woman, our creation’s crown. I am the priest, the sacrifice, the shrine, I am the love and life of the divine ! Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, are surely mine— Are mine ! Venus am I, the love and light of earth, The wealth of kisses, the delight of tears, The barren pleasure never come to birth, The endless, infinite desire of years. I am the shrine at which thy long desire Devoured thee with intolerable fire. I was song, music, passion, death, upon thy lyre— Thy lyre!