WAGNER'S "TRISTAN UND ISOLDE"

AN ESSAY ON
THE WAGNERIAN DRAMA

BY GEORGE AINSLIE HIGHT







Passing the visions, passing the night,
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrade's hands,
Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of
my soul,
Victorious song, death's outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering
song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling,
flooding the night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet
again bursting with joy,
Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven,
As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses.

_Walt Whitman._