Tannhäuser

Oh God, Thy blinding beauty, and the hght 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 ! Warm breasts that glow with light ephemeral And move with passionate music to enthrall, To charm, to enchant, to seal the entrancing breath. I fall ! Stop ! Spare me !—Slay me ! [ Tannhduser enters into an ecstasy. This is death. [ The evil and averse Hathoor, or Vemcs, who hath arisen in the place of the Great Goddess, lifteth tip her voice and chanteth :— Venus. I sis 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. 27