Tannhäuser

The evil, and the barren, and the vile, In God's undying smile ! Stoop not, O stoop not, to yon splendid world, Yon darkly-splendid, airless, void, inane, Blind confines in stupendous horror curled, The sleepless place of Terror and distress. Luring damned souls with lying loveliness, The Habitation and the House of Pain. For that is their abode, the Wretched Ones, Of all unhappiness the sons ! And when, invoking often, thou shalt see That formless Fire ; when all the earth is shaken, The stars abide not, and the moon is gone, All Time crushed back into Eternity, The Universe by earthquake overtaken ; Light is not, and the thunders roll. The World is done : When in the darkness Chaos rolls again In the excited brain : Then, O then call not to thy view that visible Image of Nature ; fatal is her name ! It fitteth not thy body to behold That living light of Hell, The unluminous, dead flame. Until that body from the crucible Hath passed, pure gold ! 119