The Swan-Song

By Victor B. Neuburg

Published in the Agnostic Journal

London, England

27 May 1905

(page 325)

Oh! for a passionless dawn, love and regret far away—

Oh! for a passionless dawn over a wind-stilled bay,

For the stars are my masters in fire, and "love" breathes the passionate sea,

And ever her current flows higher, and ever it flows to me.

And I was lost in the dawn: I wandered alone in the night

Over a pathless lawn, and the stars were wan and white;

I heard the Naiads sing to the moon, and the wildering pipes of Pan;

Encircled in flame each wild note came, and maddened I turned and ran.

And so I reached the depths of hell, and lay in a rut to die,

But I heard the waters rise and swell, and the night-wind rushing by;

And the salt spray touched my lips, and straight I rose in my pain and hied

All eager and swift to the mystic Gate, and there I was shut outside.

Ah! but I heard the passion-song of a world of death and birth,

And the day was hot, and the night was long over the good green earth;

And when men heard my lays, they stayed, and scattered a meed of praise,

But I turned again from the haunts of men, to seek the nobler days.

And so I trod the mountain path, in the neat of a new-born day,

But mount and morass, by field and rath, I took my lonely way;

And heaven all around me lay, but ah! I knew not then,

And I came at the close of a summer's day back to the haunts of men.

So now I long for a passionless dawn, and the calm of the great unknown;

With a last glance over the darkened lawn, now fare I forth alone.

The silent path before me lies, and the night is still and deep;

Ever a star is before my eyes, and I lay me down to sleep.

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