Classic Poem

Of all great legends from Germania's loom,
Mightiest are these to haunt and harrow and thrill:
Tannhaüser's Sin accurst; his hopeless doom;
And Faust's dread bargain with the Spirit of Ill.
Each cuts like ice-wind, and each burns like coal,
For each is the wild tale of a Lost Soul.
Massive, deep-visioned, deep-voiced Allemaine,
Whose Music seizes Heaven and searches Hell —
Thou of the luminous and the mastering brain —
Guard thou thy soil but guard thy soul as well,
Lest it be said thy destiny was of old
In these thine own immortal dreams foretold.