Two Preludes: Lohengrin; Tristan und Isolde

by: Algernon Charles Swinburne (Author)

from: A Century of Roundels (Pp. 31 - 32)  1883

I.  LOHENGRIN.

Love, out of the depth of things,
As a dewfall felt from above,
From the heaven whence only springs
               Love,

Love, heard from the heights thereof,
The clouds and the watersprings,
Draws close as the clouds remove.

And the soul in it speaks and sings,
A swan sweet-souled as a dove,
An echo that only rings
               Love.

II.  TRISTAN UND ISOLDE.

Fate, out of the deep sea's gloom,
When a man's heart's pride grows great,
And nought seems now to foredoom
               Fate,

Fate, laden with fears in wait,
Draws close through the clouds that loom,
Till the soul see, all too late,

More dark than a dead world's tomb,
More high than the sheer dawn's gate,
More deep than the wide sea's womb,
               Fate.