The Star in the West

102 THE STAR IN THE WEST 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 ! Tannhäuser now enters the palace of the great queen Venus , the false Isis , Life ! Life ! This Kiss ! Draw in thy breath ! To me ! To me ! He is lost ! Act II opens with two beautiful songs . Venus sings the praise of spring and summer , and Tannhäuser that of autumn and winter . He finds the latter chill season the best : But best is grim December , The Goatish God his power ; The Satyr blows the ember , And pain is passion's flower ; When blood drips over kisses , And madness sobs through wine : Ah mine ! The snake starts up and hisses And strikes and I am thine !3 In the above we still find the now almost dead echo of his higher self , yet Venus entices him on , compar ing their fierce lust to the lukewarm affection of those little lovers who strip their maidens bare , “ And find them - naked ! Poor and pitiful !". directly the glamour 1 Tannhäuser , vol . i, p . 228 . 3 Ibid . vol . i, p . 230 . 2 Ibid . vol .i, p . 229 . 4 Ibid . vol . i, p . 231 .