by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888)
Ah, sweet angels, let him dream!
Language: English
Ah, sweet angels, let him dream! Keep his eyelids; let him seem Not this fever wasted wight Thinned and paled before his time, But the brilliant youthful knight In the glory of his prime, Sitting in the gilded barge, At thy side, thou lovely charge, Bending gayly o'er thy hand, Iseult of Ireland! And that golden cup her mother Gave her, that her future lord, Gave her, that King Marc and she Might drink it on their marriage day, And for ever love each other. Let her as she sits on board, Ah! sweet saints, unwittingly! See it shine and take it up, And to Tristram laughing say, "Sir Tristram of thy courtesy, Pledge me in my golden cup." Let them drink it; let their hands Tremble, and their cheeks be flame, As they feel the fatal bands Of a love they dare not name, With a wild delicious pain, Twine about their hearts again! "Tristram! nay, nay, thou must not take my hand! Tristram! sweet love! we are betrayed, outplanned. Fly, save thyself, save me! I dare not stay." One last kiss first! "'Tis vain to horse away! Fly, fly away!"
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Authorship:
- by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), "Tristan and Iseult", appears in Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems, first published 1852 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Adolph Martin Foerster (1854 - 1927), "Tristram and Iseult", op. 60, published 1904 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 192