Collected Works (Vol. I)

230 ACT II. ‘Buta moment's thought is passion s passing bell. "—KEAtTS, Lamia. fn Venushere. VENUS, SWEET, sweet are May and June, dear, The loves of lambent spring, Our lamp the drooping moun, dear, Our roof, the stars that sing ; The bed, of moss and roses ; The night, as long as death ! Still, breath ! Life wakens and reposes, Love ever quickeneth ! Sweet, sweet, when Lion and Maiden,! The motley months of gold, Swoop down with sunlight laden, And eyes are bright and bold. Life-swelling breasts uncover Their warm involving deep— Love, sleep |— And lover lies with lover On air’s substantial steep. TANNHAUSER. Ah! sweeter was September— The amber rain of leaves, The harvest to remember, The load of sunny sheaves. In gardens deeply scented, In orchards heavily hung, Love flung Away the days demented With lips that curled and clung. Ah! sweeter still October, When russet leaves go grey, And sombre loves and sober Make twilight of the day. 1 Leo and Virgo, in which the Sun ts during July and August. TANNIAUSER Dark dreams and shadows tenser Throb through the vital scroll, Man’s soul. Lift, shake the subtle censer That hides the cruel coal! Still sweeter when the Bowman! Ifis silky shaft of frost Lets loose on earth, that no man May linger nor be lost. The barren woods, deserted, Lose echo of our sighs— 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. Hlow I have despised, Riding through meadows of the rushing Rhine, To watch the gentle foresters of spring Crush dainty violets in their dalliance, Laughing in chorus with the birds ; and then (Coming at harvest time upon my tracks) See these same lovers in the golden sheaves Under the sun. The same, the fuller fruit, say you? But somehow, nearer to the end. Lost the old sense of mystery, and lost That curious reverence in sacrilege With Wonder—the child’s faculty! Less joy, Less laughter, yes! that symptom [ approve; Vet is that subtle fading-out of smiles 1 Sagittarius, Capricornus, in which is the Sun during November and December.