https://sonett.fontane-place.de/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:34:44 +0000 MyBB https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20303 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:43:49 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20303

OH! that swift words of fire might leave my pen
Like lightning on a stormy midnight sky,
That all the moods that love and hate supply
Might be expressed to move the minds of men
As wind among the branches, that the glen
Might lend its sweetness, and the mountains high
Their melancholy awe, and the long sigh
Of summer-tide its peace, for surely then
My songs would ring sweet chimes in noble ears
And fill the listening world with melody
Till every land would quiver at my fame
And treasure it through dark and shining years;
Then would all nations learn to worship thee,
Dear love, and bow at mention of thy name.]]>

OH! that swift words of fire might leave my pen
Like lightning on a stormy midnight sky,
That all the moods that love and hate supply
Might be expressed to move the minds of men
As wind among the branches, that the glen
Might lend its sweetness, and the mountains high
Their melancholy awe, and the long sigh
Of summer-tide its peace, for surely then
My songs would ring sweet chimes in noble ears
And fill the listening world with melody
Till every land would quiver at my fame
And treasure it through dark and shining years;
Then would all nations learn to worship thee,
Dear love, and bow at mention of thy name.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20302 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:41:30 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20302

LIKE a bird cheered with sunshine after rain,
My soul pants joyous music, and is glad
Of your sweet presence, dear, since I have had
Assurance of your love, and all the pain
Of strange past folly ne'er must come again
To dim those eyes or make your spirit sad;
What matter both have been so blindly mad?
We see each other's eyes - and we are sane.

Time passes: seize the present moment, dear;
Cling fast! - I love you - let us take our fill
Of pleasure! Let us live our lives, and still
Banish from out our hearts the bitter fear!
Borne on the surge of passion's waves, at last
Let us forget the miserable past!]]>

LIKE a bird cheered with sunshine after rain,
My soul pants joyous music, and is glad
Of your sweet presence, dear, since I have had
Assurance of your love, and all the pain
Of strange past folly ne'er must come again
To dim those eyes or make your spirit sad;
What matter both have been so blindly mad?
We see each other's eyes - and we are sane.

Time passes: seize the present moment, dear;
Cling fast! - I love you - let us take our fill
Of pleasure! Let us live our lives, and still
Banish from out our hearts the bitter fear!
Borne on the surge of passion's waves, at last
Let us forget the miserable past!]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20301 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:36:49 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20301

STRONGER by far than kinship's casual tie
Is that strong bond of friendship that unites
Two hearts in mutual trust, till each delights
To rest upon the other; each will cry
Its hopes and fears, as certain of reply
As one of echoes by the frowning heights
Of mountain walls and gorges when the night's
Soft voice of peace is hushed expectantly:

And so we stand together, you and I,
For you are good to me, and there are few
More dear to me in grief or joy than you,
And few hold fast my thoughts while you are by.
Then, sister, thus in soul I humbly bend
And greet you by the sacred name of Friend.]]>

STRONGER by far than kinship's casual tie
Is that strong bond of friendship that unites
Two hearts in mutual trust, till each delights
To rest upon the other; each will cry
Its hopes and fears, as certain of reply
As one of echoes by the frowning heights
Of mountain walls and gorges when the night's
Soft voice of peace is hushed expectantly:

And so we stand together, you and I,
For you are good to me, and there are few
More dear to me in grief or joy than you,
And few hold fast my thoughts while you are by.
Then, sister, thus in soul I humbly bend
And greet you by the sacred name of Friend.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20300 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:34:27 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20300

LIKE a ship shuddering along the sea
When dark-grey clouds fly shredding in the rack,
And far away a huge bank clambers black
Above the horizon, rumbling terribly,
And all men wonder what the end will be,
Flung heavenward and rushing headlong back
Into the depth, while all the foamy track
Hisses and roars and shouts in deadly glee;
So now I fly before my thoughts and find
No haven, and my spirit vainly broods
On life and death, now hurled by hope on high
With strange exultant laughter, straight declined
Into the gloom of dull despondent moods -
But yet I know God's sun is in the sky.]]>

LIKE a ship shuddering along the sea
When dark-grey clouds fly shredding in the rack,
And far away a huge bank clambers black
Above the horizon, rumbling terribly,
And all men wonder what the end will be,
Flung heavenward and rushing headlong back
Into the depth, while all the foamy track
Hisses and roars and shouts in deadly glee;
So now I fly before my thoughts and find
No haven, and my spirit vainly broods
On life and death, now hurled by hope on high
With strange exultant laughter, straight declined
Into the gloom of dull despondent moods -
But yet I know God's sun is in the sky.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20299 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:31:32 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20299

A REVELLER at the feast of life was I,
Full of quaint humours born of sparkling wine,
Though one grave mood, behind the rest, was mine
Even when my wild laughter pierced the sky.

I filled a crystal cup and raised it high;
A liquor cloudy-green and opaline
With gleams of crimson - 'twas a drink divine!
I drank, and cast the empty goblet by.

It made me mad; I thought the hall was fair,
The arras splendid, and our food the best;
And wondered when they spoke to me of care.
From that brief dream I woke, alone, unblessed
Even by that dread friend men term Despair
I'm weary, and I only long for rest.]]>

A REVELLER at the feast of life was I,
Full of quaint humours born of sparkling wine,
Though one grave mood, behind the rest, was mine
Even when my wild laughter pierced the sky.

I filled a crystal cup and raised it high;
A liquor cloudy-green and opaline
With gleams of crimson - 'twas a drink divine!
I drank, and cast the empty goblet by.

It made me mad; I thought the hall was fair,
The arras splendid, and our food the best;
And wondered when they spoke to me of care.
From that brief dream I woke, alone, unblessed
Even by that dread friend men term Despair
I'm weary, and I only long for rest.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20298 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:29:14 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20298

IT must be so. My dream is at an end,
And sorrow hangs upon me as a cloud
About a mountain peak that towers proud
And stern in cold grey dawnings. Shall I bend,
Like the wild oak when vexed with wind, and send
A plaintive wail to pierce the gloomy shroud
Of misty air? - be weak, and weep aloud
For that which all my tears may not amend?

No! kindest of all cruel tortures,
Dull and half-dead your safe advice appears
Because the blood is surging at my ears
And feverous madness in my being stirs
Until I scarce dare trust myself. And yet
I love you: Is there room, then, for regret?]]>

IT must be so. My dream is at an end,
And sorrow hangs upon me as a cloud
About a mountain peak that towers proud
And stern in cold grey dawnings. Shall I bend,
Like the wild oak when vexed with wind, and send
A plaintive wail to pierce the gloomy shroud
Of misty air? - be weak, and weep aloud
For that which all my tears may not amend?

No! kindest of all cruel tortures,
Dull and half-dead your safe advice appears
Because the blood is surging at my ears
And feverous madness in my being stirs
Until I scarce dare trust myself. And yet
I love you: Is there room, then, for regret?]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20297 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:26:57 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20297

You cannot by a word destroy my right
Of having that which is my life. Behold,
You have cast me into a pit, where fiends have tolled
A dirge for me and gathered in the night
To show my inner vision vanished light!
Agleam on vanished heaps of gems and gold,
A dazzling world of treasure, wealth untold!
I stretch my arms - it flashes out of sight.

Yet - by the might forces that combine
The universe of atoms - O, my saint!
You are enshrined within my soul, a quaint
Grotesque unstable tomb, yet music fine
Breathes ever where you lie, till grey time faint
In the stone arms of eternity, mine-mine!]]>

You cannot by a word destroy my right
Of having that which is my life. Behold,
You have cast me into a pit, where fiends have tolled
A dirge for me and gathered in the night
To show my inner vision vanished light!
Agleam on vanished heaps of gems and gold,
A dazzling world of treasure, wealth untold!
I stretch my arms - it flashes out of sight.

Yet - by the might forces that combine
The universe of atoms - O, my saint!
You are enshrined within my soul, a quaint
Grotesque unstable tomb, yet music fine
Breathes ever where you lie, till grey time faint
In the stone arms of eternity, mine-mine!]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20296 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:23:19 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20296

BECAUSE, three hundred years ago to-day,
A spirit that dull custom could not tame -
A soul of fire that had no part in shame,
Nor recked what babbling tongues of men might say,
But trod its wild and self-elected way
Fearless, and left the rest to love and fame -
Sprang from unworthy earth like leaping flame
But left a name that envy cannot slay ;
Therefore we meet, strange mixture of divine
And human, to do honour to your shade ;
Prince of Bohemia, scôp whose lips have made
Our English verse like draughts of fiery wine ;
Our godlike brother, you whose words have been
Fierce joy to us, be with us, though unseen.]]>

BECAUSE, three hundred years ago to-day,
A spirit that dull custom could not tame -
A soul of fire that had no part in shame,
Nor recked what babbling tongues of men might say,
But trod its wild and self-elected way
Fearless, and left the rest to love and fame -
Sprang from unworthy earth like leaping flame
But left a name that envy cannot slay ;
Therefore we meet, strange mixture of divine
And human, to do honour to your shade ;
Prince of Bohemia, scôp whose lips have made
Our English verse like draughts of fiery wine ;
Our godlike brother, you whose words have been
Fierce joy to us, be with us, though unseen.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20295 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:20:49 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20295

SEIZE on the present, for the past is dead,
And all the future looms with stormy sky
Livid and rumbling, and the dark is nigh -
The terrors of a night when overhead
The crash of thunder weighs the heart with dread,
And ceaseless lightnings snake-like writhe and fly
About the lift, and all the meadows lie
Sodden with streaming rain, and love hath fled.
Forget the future ; let the present shake
Its petals round us in the sunshine here !
Forget old pain and taste new joy instead !
For one brief moment, live for love's own sake
In careless pleasure, free from hope and fear :
Seize on the present, for the past is dead !]]>

SEIZE on the present, for the past is dead,
And all the future looms with stormy sky
Livid and rumbling, and the dark is nigh -
The terrors of a night when overhead
The crash of thunder weighs the heart with dread,
And ceaseless lightnings snake-like writhe and fly
About the lift, and all the meadows lie
Sodden with streaming rain, and love hath fled.
Forget the future ; let the present shake
Its petals round us in the sunshine here !
Forget old pain and taste new joy instead !
For one brief moment, live for love's own sake
In careless pleasure, free from hope and fear :
Seize on the present, for the past is dead !]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20294 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:13:04 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20294 The Sunrise - Prelude


The Quickening Of Day.

OCTOBER'S roses are all faded now,
And with carnations full of languid scent
Imperial Summer wreathes her amorous brow,
But I am wrapt in precious discontent,
For Love has bound me fast, I know not how,
As I fled, heeding not the way I went,
Through free wild woods, and I am forced to bow
To her who taught me what my being meant.

I thought my hovering fancy might have strayed
Bee-like from flower to flower, but here's an end
To all my erring thoughts; I never knew
The swiftness of the fire with which I played -
Last month I laughed with you as friend with friend,
But now I have another name for you.]]> The Sunrise - Prelude


The Quickening Of Day.

OCTOBER'S roses are all faded now,
And with carnations full of languid scent
Imperial Summer wreathes her amorous brow,
But I am wrapt in precious discontent,
For Love has bound me fast, I know not how,
As I fled, heeding not the way I went,
Through free wild woods, and I am forced to bow
To her who taught me what my being meant.

I thought my hovering fancy might have strayed
Bee-like from flower to flower, but here's an end
To all my erring thoughts; I never knew
The swiftness of the fire with which I played -
Last month I laughed with you as friend with friend,
But now I have another name for you.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20293 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:07:47 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20293

SWAGS up! and yet I turn upon the way.
The yellow hill against a dapple sky,
With tufts and clumps of thorn, the bush whereby
All through the wonder-pregnant night I lay
Until the silver stars were merged in grey
- Our fragrant camp - demand a parting sigh:
New tracks, new camps, and hearts for ever high,
Yet brief regret with every welcome day.

Dear dreamy earth, receding flickering lamp,
Dear dust wherein I found this night a home,
Still for a memory's sake I turn and cling,
Then take the road for many a distant camp,
Among what hills, by what pale whispering foam,
With eager faith for ever wandering.]]>

SWAGS up! and yet I turn upon the way.
The yellow hill against a dapple sky,
With tufts and clumps of thorn, the bush whereby
All through the wonder-pregnant night I lay
Until the silver stars were merged in grey
- Our fragrant camp - demand a parting sigh:
New tracks, new camps, and hearts for ever high,
Yet brief regret with every welcome day.

Dear dreamy earth, receding flickering lamp,
Dear dust wherein I found this night a home,
Still for a memory's sake I turn and cling,
Then take the road for many a distant camp,
Among what hills, by what pale whispering foam,
With eager faith for ever wandering.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20292 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:05:35 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20292

NURSE not your grief, nor make obsequious moan
When I have shed this flesh I love so well,
Nor slowly toll the dull heart-bruising knell,
Nor carve my name in customary stone;
But let the generous earth reclaim her own -
And my usurious profit who can tell?
Dash tears aside, let joy resume her spell;
Stars glitter where the storm is overblown.

Because I have lived I would not have one say:
"Here long ago a man of such a name
Was left to moulder in his pit of clay."
Let only love remember how I came
And built an earthen altar in my day
And lit thereon a comfortable flame.]]>

NURSE not your grief, nor make obsequious moan
When I have shed this flesh I love so well,
Nor slowly toll the dull heart-bruising knell,
Nor carve my name in customary stone;
But let the generous earth reclaim her own -
And my usurious profit who can tell?
Dash tears aside, let joy resume her spell;
Stars glitter where the storm is overblown.

Because I have lived I would not have one say:
"Here long ago a man of such a name
Was left to moulder in his pit of clay."
Let only love remember how I came
And built an earthen altar in my day
And lit thereon a comfortable flame.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20291 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:02:48 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20291
I HAVE sought and followed you, drunk with your sacred wine;
Led out by a laughing wind on a tumbling sea,
On crags amid clouds, in cups that allure the bee,
And deep in the gem-lit gloom of the tortuous mine,
And on widespread wings where the great worlds dance and shine
I have sought by the golden light; but have bent the knee
At last where you lie, a humble goddess and free,
Naked and flushed in the warmth of a crimson shrine.

The hordes of hate have trampled your blooms in mire,
And cackle and roar as their mockery priests blaspheme,
And sing the marching hymn of a wingless might.
They forge their god in the heat of unholy fire
- The squat strong incubus born of an evil dream;
And it shrinks and crumbles away in the golden light.]]>
I HAVE sought and followed you, drunk with your sacred wine;
Led out by a laughing wind on a tumbling sea,
On crags amid clouds, in cups that allure the bee,
And deep in the gem-lit gloom of the tortuous mine,
And on widespread wings where the great worlds dance and shine
I have sought by the golden light; but have bent the knee
At last where you lie, a humble goddess and free,
Naked and flushed in the warmth of a crimson shrine.

The hordes of hate have trampled your blooms in mire,
And cackle and roar as their mockery priests blaspheme,
And sing the marching hymn of a wingless might.
They forge their god in the heat of unholy fire
- The squat strong incubus born of an evil dream;
And it shrinks and crumbles away in the golden light.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20290 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:00:17 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20290

SPRING, and the wispy clouds that fade away
And draw the ecstatic soul in pain to aspire
In maddening flight through heaven's thin flood of fire
To melt in rapture at the heart of day,
The powers of the world that promise and betray
Have dragged me from you in their icy ire
And set me spinning at their loom, for hire,
The shroud in which my senses must decay.

For hire I give myself, and cannot tell
If the blind force that flings me in the chest
Have power or will to pay the bargained price,
Yet for a word of love I gladly quell
The quivering hope of not inactive rest
And very humbly make my sacrifice.]]>

SPRING, and the wispy clouds that fade away
And draw the ecstatic soul in pain to aspire
In maddening flight through heaven's thin flood of fire
To melt in rapture at the heart of day,
The powers of the world that promise and betray
Have dragged me from you in their icy ire
And set me spinning at their loom, for hire,
The shroud in which my senses must decay.

For hire I give myself, and cannot tell
If the blind force that flings me in the chest
Have power or will to pay the bargained price,
Yet for a word of love I gladly quell
The quivering hope of not inactive rest
And very humbly make my sacrifice.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20289 Tue, 01 May 2012 10:57:24 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20289

O WISTFUL eyes that haunt the gloom of sleep,
Are you my own, remembered from the night
I sat before my glass in dumb affright
And saw my cowering soul afraid to weep?
Perhaps you are his, foreshadowed, when I creep
Behind him and confess the hopeless blight
That wilts the bloom of our supreme delight
- The breath of horror from the unknown deep.

Eyes that have never seen a mother's face,
Have you no mercy that you stare and stare,
Although I never felt the hope I slew?
Wide eyes, but when I kneel to God for grace,
Your steadfast pity deepens my despair;
The darkness I desire is full of you.]]>

O WISTFUL eyes that haunt the gloom of sleep,
Are you my own, remembered from the night
I sat before my glass in dumb affright
And saw my cowering soul afraid to weep?
Perhaps you are his, foreshadowed, when I creep
Behind him and confess the hopeless blight
That wilts the bloom of our supreme delight
- The breath of horror from the unknown deep.

Eyes that have never seen a mother's face,
Have you no mercy that you stare and stare,
Although I never felt the hope I slew?
Wide eyes, but when I kneel to God for grace,
Your steadfast pity deepens my despair;
The darkness I desire is full of you.]]>