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Page 1 of 41902 · PDF PAGE 50
The song that soars, and reads the starry runes, And swoons ! None but the dead can tune the lyre of love ! Come, love, thy body serpentine and bright ! What love is this, the heart of sombre hght. Impossible, and therefore infinite ? Sheer height ! None but the dead can twine the limbs of love. Come, love ! My body in thy passion weeps Tears keen as dewfall's, salter than the deep's. My bosom ! How its fortress wakes, and leaps, And sleeps ! None but the dead can sleep the sleep of love ! Come, love, caress me with endearing eyes ! Light the l…
1902 · PDF PAGE 9
…old and glamour of Life's lotus, The flower that falls from this our stronger sight, We dwell, eternal shapes of shadowy light. Only the love on earth that shook and smote us Begets new stars —truth's flowers fallen through night Beyond the gold and glamour of Life's lotus I Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers ! Light, the gemmed robes of Love ! Life, lifted breath, Ageless existence deifying death ! Love, the sole flower beyond these lesser flowers !— In thee at last the live fruit quickeneth ? Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers !…
1902 · PDF PAGE 49
…s sweet abandonment of self— Come, with this kiss I seal thy loyal oath To spit upon her ! Tannhauser. Ah, you murder me ! [Sings. Come, love, and kiss my shoulders ! Sleepy lies The tinted bosom whence its fire flies, The breathing life of thee, and swoons, and sighs, And dies ! None but the dead can know the worth of love ! Come, love, thy bosom to my heart recalls Strange festivals and subtle funerals. Soft passion rises in the amber walls. And falls ! None but the dead can breathe the life of love ! Come, love, thy lips, curved hollow as th…
1902 · PDF PAGE 7
DEDICATION I SHALL not tell thee that I love thee ! Nay ! by the Star in Heaven burning, Its ray to me at midnight turning To tell me that it beams above thee — Nay ! though thou wert, as I am, yearning, I should not tell thee that I love thee ! I know what secret thought once blossomed Into a blush that seemed a kiss, Some swift suppressed extreme of bliss In thy most fearful sigh embosomed. What oracle should prate of this ? I know the secret thought that blossomed ! Extol the truth of love's disdain ! Love, daring by no glance to gladden A h…
1902 · PDF PAGE 92
Wolfram. Begrudge you, no ! But — wish our luck were yours ? Yes ! Come, Tannhauser, there's my hand on it ! Luck, love, and loyalty —the triple toast ! Foresters. Tannhauser ! Luck, and love, and loyalty ! Tannhauser. I thank you, loving kinsmen and my friends. But see, I am impatient to be gone ! Your horse—that favour I shall not forget. Nor linger to repay. Good morrow then ! Good sport all day ! Landgrave. God speed thee, Tannhauser. [£xti Tannhauser. Am I still dreaming ? It was surely he But such an one, compact of suffering, Of joy, of …
1902 · PDF PAGE 106
Landgrave. Passion and music—but no Principle ! How different is Tannhauser! ( To the unknown minstrel^ You, sir, next ! Sing of pure love and noble womanhood. Our court loves not these wastrel troubadours, Loose locks, flushed faces, soul's unseemliness. The Unknown Minstrel (sings). Amid earth's motley, Gaia's cap and bells, This too material, too unreal life, Sing, sing the crown of tender miracles, The pure true wife ! Sing not of love, the unutterable one, The love divine that Mary has to men. Seek not the winepress and the rising sun Beyo…
1902 · PDF PAGE 30
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! Hathoor 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 ba…
1902 · PDF PAGE 68
For Love is lord of truth and loyalty, Lifting himself out of the lowly dust On golden plumes up to the purest sky, Above the reach of loathly sinful lust, Whose base affect through cowardly distrust Of his weak wings dare not to heaven fly, But like a moldwarp in the earth doth lie. His dunghill thoughts, which do themselves enure To dirty dross, no higher dare aspire. Nor can his feeble earthly eyes endure The flaming light of that celestial fire Which kindleth love in generous desire, And makes him mount above the native might Of heavy earth…
1902 · PDF PAGE 39
…n His silky shaft of frost Lets loose on earth, that no man May linger nor be lost. The barren woods, deserted, Lose echo of our siofhs— Love—dies ?— Love lives — in granite skirted, And under oaken skies. 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 ! Venus. Those are thy true joys ? Cruelty for love } Tannhauser. And death in kissing. How I hav…
1902 · PDF PAGE 115
All the blind horror of the song recedes. There is a sequel ; is there not, my friend ? Of love, your theme, we have not heard a note. Tannhauser. That is a question. I am not so sure My song was not entirely to that end. Wolfram. Yes, poet, true one that you are indeed! You shew us the dilemma of the soul, The Gordian knot Love only hews asunder. Tannhauser. Or—shall I say ?—soothes only, bandages, Not heals the sore of Destiny ? Wolfram. No, certes. But substitutes for one reality Another —and a lovely pleasant one. Tannhauser. Existence is i…
1902 · PDF PAGE 41
… of deadly fear ! This secret : Thou art darkness in Thyself, And evil wrapped in light, and ugliness Vested in beauty ! Therefore is my love No petty passion like these country-folk's : No fertile glory (as the Love of God) : But vast and barren as the winter sea, Holding I know not what enormous soul In its salt bitter bosom, underneath The iron waters and the serpent foam ; Below, where sight and sound are set no more, But only the intolerable weight Of its own gloomy selfhood. This am I : This passion, lion-mouthed and adder-eyed. A mass co…
1902 · PDF PAGE 104
…s come :— And you abuse our patience to insult The noble minstrel whose impassioned song Touched every heart. Sing in your turn you may. Love is the theme, not imbecility ! Wolfram. That is the subject next his heart, no doubt ! \^Laughter. Herald. Lord Bertram ! Bertram. I shall sing in other key. \Sings. He is the equal of the gods, my queen. He crowned and chosen out of men, Who sits beside thee, sees Love's laughing ecstasies Flame in thy face, and alter then To the low light of passion dimly seen In shaded woods and dells, Love's wide deme…
1902 · PDF PAGE 102
Wolfram. Our sturdy lover will not be consoled For losing, as he phrases it, his friend. Landgrave. Well, we forgive him the more readily Because of the occasion. One alone Of all themes possible may grace this hour ; — Love ! Let the lots of precedence be drawn. Tannhauser, you will string us once again Your harp forgotten .■* j Tannhauser. That will I, my lord. Herald. On the Lord Wolfram falls it first to sing. Wolfram (sink's). Tender the smile, and faint the lover's sigh, When first love dawns in the blue maiden sky. Where happy peace is l…
1902 · PDF PAGE 72
…elly, and forget The cunning attitudes and aptitudes ! Unlearn the mowings, the lascivious grins ! I perceive purity. Venus. Nay, I have loved thee ! Fresh pleasure hourly filled the crystal cup. Shalt thou find wine so comely and so keen, So fresh with life to fill each aching vein With new electric fervour ? Will she be My equal ? She is mortal and a child. Her arms are frail and white. Her lily cheeks Could never take thy kiss. Thy love would shock, Repel. I scorn to say her love were less Than mine : I tell thee that she could not love Thee…
1902 · PDF PAGE 81
And sink in lover's swoon. We'll sing them sister songs, and shew What secrets mortal lovers know. Tannhauser. The simple life of love and joy therein ! Merely to love—to take such pride in it Gods must behold ! The childish easiness, Impossible to me, who am become Perhaps the subtlest mind of men. Alas ! Maybe in this I still am self-deceived, Merely the fool swelled up with bitter words, Imagination, and the toadstool growth, Thought, wounded ; as a scorpion to sting Its own bruised life out. This is Tannhauser! How long ago since he took pl…
1902 · PDF PAGE 63
…oness bereaved, If, for a moment's breathing space, I move Back from the purple where her bosom heaved, Back from the chosen body that I love ? Whose lips cling faster still In desperate sweet will? Whose body melts as fire caught in wine Into the clasping soul ? Whose breathing breasts control Her heart's quick pulsing, and the sob of mine? O Venus, lady Venus, thou it is Whose fierce immortal kiss Abides upon me, about me, and within ! Thou, lady of the secret of the Sea, Made one for love with me, Love and desire and dream, a sense of mortal…
1902 · PDF PAGE 80
… lustre rare. The bloom upon the peach is fine ; The blossom on thy cheek is mine ! O kiss me—if you dare ! 1 called thee by the name of love That mothers fear and gods approve, And maidens blush to say — O Gretchen, meet me in the dell We know and love, who love so well, While morn is cold and gray ! So, match thy blushes to the dawn ; Thy bosom to the rising moon, Until our loves to earth have drawn Some new bewitching tune. Come, Gretchen, in the dusk of day. Where nymphs and dryads creep away Beneath the oaks, to laugh and play 78
1902 · PDF PAGE 8
In purple pleasure plucked of pain. Nay ! let our tears, that fail to sadden, Extol the truth of love's disdain ! Let deeper silence shield the deeper rapture ! Hardly our eyes reveal the inward bliss, Sealed by no speech and shadowed by no kiss. Love is no wizard to elude recapture In the strong prison of his silences ! Let deeper silence shield the deeper rapture ! Twin souls are we, to one Star bound in Heaven ! Twin souls on earth by earthly bars divided ! But, did thy spirit glide as mine has glided Straight to That Star — no rose-leaves a…
1902 · PDF PAGE 85
…her in Maidenhood ! Saintly Beatitude ! Queen of the Angel Host ! Bride of the Holy Ghost! Ave Maria ! [Exemii Pilgrims. TannhAuser. The love of Isis ! No mere love to Her That is inborn in every soul of us ! It is Her love to Christ that we must taste, Uniting us with Her eternal sigh. There is a problem infinite again. I have not gained one jot since first I saw The stately bosom of the Venusberg, Save that mine eyes have seen a little truth, My body found a little weariness. I am very feeble ! Hither comes the hunt ! \_A horn winds quite clo…
1902 · PDF PAGE 105
But me ! I burn with love ! My lips are wan ! Thy face is turned— I flame ! I melt ! I fall ! My heart is chilled and dark ; My soul's ethereal spark Is dulled for sorrow ; my despairs recall At last Thy name, O gracious Paphian, Lady of Mercy to the love of man ! Come, come, immortal, of the many thrones ! Sparrows and doves in chariot diamonded Drawn through the midmost air ! O Lady of despair, Who bound the golden helmet of Thy head ? Whose voice rings out the pitiful low tones : "Who, who hath wronged thee? And my power atones. " She who no…