Svanhild.
No, you must be told:—
For such a childish sport I am too old.
But you, whom Nature made for high endeavour,
Are you content the fields of air to tread
Hanging your poet's life upon a thread
That at my pleasure I can slip and sever?
Falk [hurriedly].
What is the date to-day?
Svanhild [more gently].
Why, now, that's right! Mind well this day, and heed it, and beware; Trust to your own wings only for your flight, Sure, if they do not break, that they will bear. The paper poem for the desk is fit, That which is lived alone has life in it; <g>That</g> only has the wings that scale the height; Choose now between them, poet: be, or write!
[Nearer to him.
Now I have done what you besought me; now
My requiem is chanted from the bough;
My only one; now all my songs are flown;
Now, if you will, I'm ready for the stone!
[She goes into the house; Falk remains motionless, looking after her; far out on the fjord is seen a boat, from which the following chorus is faintly heard:
