Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By William MortonPayne

1305 Lohengrin

STRAIN, strain thine eyes, this parting is for aye!

Grief have her will of thee! Thy faith confessed

To his unequal, he must go, the quest

Fulfilled that brought him hither on thy day

Of imminent, direst peril. Now away

To other shores bids him the Grail’s behest.

Thou knewest him too late to spare thy breast

This keen remorse, thy soul this dark dismay.

Yet canst thou face not all disconsolate

The coming years. The horn remains, the sword,

The ring he left thee, and the child whom late

Thou mournedst; while beyond the power of fate

To dim the memory of that love outpoured

Upon thee by thy stainless knight and lord.