Lohengrin

Strain, strain thine eyes, this parting is for aye! Grief have her will of thee! Thy faith confessed To his unequal, he must go, the quest Fulfilled that brought him hither on thy day Of imminent, direst peril. Now away To other shores bids him the Grail’s behest. Thou knewest him too late to spare thy breast This keen remorse, thy soul this dark dismay. Yet canst thou face not all disconsolate The coming years. The horn remains, the sword, The ring he left thee, and the child whom late Thou mournedst; while beyond the power of fate To dim the memory of that love outpoured Upon thee by thy stainless knight and lord.

Collection: 
English
William Morton Payne

More from Poet

  • Lohengrin

    Strain, strain thine eyes, this parting is for aye! Grief have her will of thee! Thy faith confessed To his unequal, he must go, the quest Fulfilled that brought him hither on thy day Of imminent, direst peril. Now away To other shores bids him the Grail’s behest. Thou knewest him too late to...

  • Tannhauser

    Sin-satiate, and haggard with despair, Freed from the unholy mountain’s baleful spell, Forth coming from the very pit of Hell, The fallen knight repentant kneels in prayer. But hark! what solemn strains fill all the air? What pilgrim chants now on the morning swell, And pour hope’s balm upon his...

  • Ej Blot Til Lyst

    Not merely for our pleasure, but to purge The soul from baseness, from ignoble fear, And all the passions that make dim the clear Calm vision of the world; our feet to urge On to ideal far-set goals; to merge Our being with the heart of things; brought near The springs of life, to make us see...

  • Incipit Vita Nova

    What time the earth takes on the garb of Spring, And new-born joy runs riot in the blood, When the year’s tide turns refluent to its flood, And blissful birds their songs are carolling,— When life once more is fair, and everything In nature smiles, when tender flowrets bud, And deck the mead as...