Tannhäuser

Darkness and death and rapture. Sing to you ? What song? My tunes are played upon too oft. My first great cry of love inaudible Sapped me of music. Venus. Sing me that again ! Tannhauser. Who is this maiden rob6d for a bride, White shoulders and bright brows adorable, The flaming locks that clothe her, and abide. As God were bathing in the fire of Hell ? They change, they grow, they shake As sunlight on the lake : They hiss, they glisten on her bosom bare. O maiden, maiden queen ! The lightning flows between Thy mounting breasts, too magically fair. Draw mc, O draw mc to a dreaming death ! Send out thine opiate breath, And lull me to the everlasting sleep. That, closing from the kisses of disdain To ecstasy of pain, I may sob out my life into their dangerous deep. 58