LORELEY
"The Loreley's
Longing II"
By Stephanie Law
This amazing
picture belongs to her, do visit her wonderful
site, you
will be amazed
StephanieLaw@Epilogue.com
"They say the
cliffs are haunted by a solemn, lonely cry,
and I have seen the doves and gulls dance
aching lullabies.
Upon the shattered Autumn winds leap echoed,
searing sighs,
And when the
moon has glazed her eye from depths slips Loreley.
She combs her hair --- Rhine-gold spun light, sings
torn flame siren
songs.
The winking gleam of dew-drop lace seeps from
her crown of thorns.
Her face is Youth wed with crook'd Age, and
pain for heart-rent wrongs
she's cast upon poor sailors who for Loreley
did long.
From depths she spins eternal
cries and Loreley does long.
"
Above Coblenz where the Rhine flows through the
hills covered with vineyardds, there is a steep
rock, round which many a legend has been woven -
the Loreley Rock. The boatman gazes up at its
gigantic summit with awful reverence when his boat
glides over the waters at twilight. Like chattering
children the restless waves whisper round the rock,
telling wonderful tales of its doings. Above on its
gray head, the legend relates what a beautiful but
false nymph clothed in white with a wreath of stars
in her flowing hair, used to sit and sing sweet
songs, until a sad tradedy drove her forever
away.
Long long ago, when night in herdark garment desended from the hills, and her
silent comrade, the pale moon, cast a silver bridge
over the deep green stream the soft voice of a
woman was heard from the rock, and a creature of
divine beauty was seen on its summit. Her golden
locks flowed like a queenly mantle from her
graceful shoulders, covering her snow white
rainment so that her tenderly formed body appeared
like a cloud of
light. Woe to the boatsman who passed the
rock at the close of day! As of old,
men
were fascinated by the heavenly song of the Grecian
hero, so was the
unhappy
voyager allured by this being to sweet
forgetfulness, his eyes, even as
his
soul, would be dazzled, and he could no longer
steer clear of reefs and
cliffs,
and this beautiful siren only drew him to an early
grave. Forgetting
all
else, he would steer towards her, already dreaming
of having reached
her;
but the jealous waves would wash round his boat and
at last dash him
treacherously against the rocks. The roaring waters
of the Rhine would
drown
the cries of agony of the victim who would never be
seen again.
But the
virgin to whom no one had ever approached,
continued
every night to sing soft and low, till darkness
vanished in the first
rays
of light, and the great
star of day drove the gray mists from the
valley.
Ronald was a proud youth and the
boldest warrior
at the
court of his father, the Palatinate Count. He heard
of this divine,
enchanting
creature, and his heart burned with the desire to
behold her. Before
having
seen the water-nymph, he felt drawn to her by an
irresistible power.
No comments:
Post a Comment