108
THE STAR
IN THE WEST
O Nature ! Self -begotten
! Spouse
of God ,
The Glory of thy Countenance
unveiled
!
Thy face , O mother ! Splendour
of the Gods !
Behold
! amid
the glory of her hair
And light shed over
from
the crown
thereof,
Wonderful eyes less passionate
than
Peace
That wept ! That wept ! O mystery
of Love !
Clasping my hands
upon the scarlet
rose
That flamed
upon my bosom , the keen thorns
Pierced
me and slew ! My spirit was withdrawn
Into Her godhead , and my soul made
One
With the Great Sorrow of the Universe,
The Love of Isis ! Then I fell away
Into some old mysterious
abyss
Rolling between
the heights
of starry
space ;
Flaming above , beyond
the Tomb of Time ,
Blending the darkness
into the profound
Chasms
of matter-so I fell away
Through many strange
eternities
of Space ,
Limitless
fields of Time ..
Such
is
the
ecstatic
rapture
of Tannhäuser ,
in
which he loses
all
perception
of
earthly
love
in
the
intoxication
of
the divine
:
Were
it
not only that the selflessness
That fills me now
,
forbids
the personal
,
Casts out the individual
,
and weeps on
For the united sorrow
of
all things
.?
And
such
is
the divine
love
to
which we all must
attain
,
“
For the united sorrow
of
all
things
."
1
Tannhäuser
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
261
.
2
Ibid
.