Falk Monologue from Love's Comedy

From Love's Comedy by Henrik Ibsen

male · defiant · 1:19 min

And a sweet sallow sang me into shame. No, you are right: I was a child to ask; But you have fired me to a nobler task. Right in the midst of men the Church is founded Where Truth's appealing clarion must be sounded We are not called, like demigods, to gaze on The battle from the far-off mountain's crest, But in our hearts to bear our fiery blazon, An Olaf's cross upon a mailed breast,-- To look afar across the fields of flight, Tho' pent within the mazes of its might,-- Beyond the mirk descry one glimmer still Of glory--that's the Call we must fulfil. (SVANHILD: And you'll fulfil it when you break from men, Stand free, alone,--) Did I frequent them then? And there lies duty. No, that time's gone by,-- My solitary compact with the sky. My four-wall-chamber poetry is done; My verse shall live in forest and in field, I'll fight under the splendour of the sun;-- I or the Lie--one of us two must yield!

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