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TANNHAUSER
We are not so feeble /—But death anyhow
Cuts and not loosens the entangled life.
Be mine the harder and the better way,
The single chance: not hope; appeal no
more $
Hardly the arrowy wisdom of despair ;
Hardly the cowardice or courage yet
To drift, nor cursing nor invoking God.
ELIZABETH.
I heard, I pure, I virginal, your song;
The shameful story of your intercourse
With—fiend or woman? And your burning
will,
Even in that horror, to the Highest ; at last
Your choice of me—the middle course of
them,
Pure human love? And, if your song be true,
As I, who heard the voice, the earnestness,
Saw the deep eyes, and truth aflame in them,
Know—then the choice be Mary’s and not
mine }
I love you better, were that possible ;
Will make you a true wife, and lead your
hand,
Or be led by you, in the pleasant path.
For me, I enter not—Blesséd be God !—
In those dark problems that disturb your soul.
Mine is the simple nature. Look at me!
TANNHAUSER,
O Lady pure, miracle of true love,
I have a bitter word and harsh to say.
This is my curse—no sooner do I speak,
Or formulate my mind in iron words,
Than my mind grows, o’erleaps the limit set,
And I perceive the truth that lies beyond—
One further step into a new-fallen night.
Hear then—I hate to hurt your perfect soul ;
I hate myself because I love you still
In that strange intermediate consciousness,
The reason and the mind! This middle way
Ancients called safe’—that damns it in-
stantly!
Without some danger nothing great is done !
Let me be God! Or, failing of that task,
1 "In medio tutissimus ibis.”—Ovib.,
Were it but by an unit, let me fall!
And, falling, be it from so great a height
That I may reach some uttermost Abyss,
Inhabit it and reign, most evil one
Of all the Horrors there—and in that path
Seem, even deluded, to approach once more
Infinity. For all the limitless
Hath no distinction —evil is no more,
And good no more.
ELIZABETH.
But God is absolute Good !
TANNHAUSER.
No! Heis Not! That negative alone
Shadows His shadow to our mortal mind.
ELIZABETH.
That is too deep ; I cannot fathom you.
TANNHAUSER.
Define, give utterance to this ‘‘Good.”” You
see
God slips you, He the Undefinable !
Not good ! Not wise! Not anything at all
That heart can grasp, or reason fram’, or soul
Shadow the sense of !
ELIZABETH.
He is far too great !
I see!
TANNHAUSER.
Not great! The consciousness of man
Their many generations moulded so
To fix in definite ideas, and clothe
Their Maker in the rags. If sk?es are vast,
So gems are tiny : who shall choose between?
Who reads the riddle of the Universe?
All words! Thus, from his rock-wrought
peeking-point
Out speers the hermit: ‘‘See, the sun is
dead !”
It shines elsewhere.
perch,
The corner of the corner of the earth,
You from your tiny