Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Lohengrin
By Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge) (1835–1905)T
Ah, Elsa, prone upon the lonely shore,
Watching the swan-wings beat along the blue,
Watching the glimmer of the silver mail
Like flash of foam, till all are lost to view;
What may thy sorrow or thy watch avail?
He cometh nevermore.
The tender gaze and strong like dewy fire,
The gracious form with airs of heaven bedight,
The love that warmed thy being like a sun;
Thou hadst thy choice of noonday or of night,
Now the swart shadows gather one by one
To give thee thy desire!
To every soul a moment, big with fate,
When, grown importunate with need and fear,
It cries for help, and lo! from close at hand
The voice Celestial answers, “I am here!”
Oh, blessèd souls, made wise to understand,
Made bravely glad to wait.
Where the surf thunders and the foam-bells fly,
Is there no place for penitence and pain?
No saving grace in thy all-piteous rue?
Will the bright vision never come again?
Alas, the swan-wings vanish in the blue.
There cometh no reply.
Scribner’s Magazine, 1887.