Collected Works (Vol. I)

TANNHAUSER 251 I sing not of that other flame of hell Wrapping with torture the delighted brow— But thou! who knowest, and hast known, so well, Sing thou ! [TANNHAUSER, entranced, imagines himself to be stillin Venusberg. TANNHAUSER (aszde). I have been dreaming that [I left this place, Escaped with life, wooed my Elizabeth; My dreams are always strange in Venusberg, [ Taking his harp. Sing thee again, dear lady, of our joy? Listen, then, listen! For some sombre finger, Other than mine, impulses on the string. This tune I knew not! See, the strings are moved Subtly as if by witchcraft—or by God ! [ Sings. In the Beginning God began, And saw the Night of Time begin ; Chaos, a speck ; and space, a span ; Ruinous cycles fallen in, And Darkness on the Deep of Time. Murmurous voices call and climb; Faces, half-formed, arise ; and He Looked from the shadow of His throne, The curtain of Eternity; He looked—and saw Himself alone, And on the sombre sea, the primal one, Faint faces, that might not abide ; Flicker, and are fordone. So were they caught within the spacious tide, The sleepy waters that encased the world. Monsters rose up, and turned themselves, and curled Into the deep again. The darkness brooded, and the bitter pain Of chaos twisted the vast limbs of time In horrid rackings: then the spasm came: The Serpent rose, the servant of the slime, In one dark miracle of flame Unluminous and void: the silent claim Of that which was, to be: the cry to climb, The bitter birth of Nature: uttermost Night Dwelt, inaccessible to sound and sight ; Shielded from Voice, impervious to Light. Lo! on the barren bosom, on the brine, The spirit of the Mighty One arose, A flickering light, a formless triple flame, The self-begotten, the impassive shrine, The seat of Heaven’s archipelagoes; Yet lighted not the glory whence it came, Nor shone upon the surface of the sea. Time, and the Great One, and the Nameless Name, Held in their grip the child, Eternity. Silence and Darkness in their womb with- held That spiritual fire, and brooded still: Nature and Time, their solenesss undispelled. Ever awaiting the eternal Will. And Law was unbegotten: uttermost Night Dwelt, inaccessible to sound and sight; Shielded from Voice, impervious to Light. Then grew within the barren womb of this The Breath of the Eternal and the Vast, Softer than dawn, and closer than a kiss— And lo! the chaos and the darkness passed ! At the creative sigh the Light became. Chaos rolled back in the abundant flame. The vast and mystic Soul, The Firmament, a living coal, Flamed ’twixt the glory and the sea below. The whirling force began. The atom whirled In vortices of flashing matter: wild as snow On mountain tops by the wind-spirits hurled, Blinding and blind, the sparks of spirit curled Each to its proper soul ; the wide wheels flow, Orderly streams, and lose the rushing speed, Meet, mingle, marry. Fire and air express Their dews and winds of molten loveliness, Fine flakes of arrowy light, the dawn’s first deed, Metallic showers and smoke self-glittering For many an aeon. Wild the pennons spring Of streaming flame! Then, surging from the tide,