And in childish wrath and sorrow tore the locks of his sunny hair
(For I wot well of all earth’s children was never a child so fair
As this boy, who, afar in the desert, from the haunts of mankind did dwell,
Who bathed in the mountain streamlet, and roamed o’er the rock-strewn fell!)
Then he thought him well how the music which his hand had for ever stilled,
Had thrilled his soul with its sweetness; and his heart was with sorrow filled,
And the ready tears of childhood flowed forth from their fountains free,
And he ran to his mother weeping, and bowed him beside her knee.
It may be that this passage partly inspired Wagner in his treatment of the incident of the stricken swan; but in the heart of Herzeleide, Parsifal’s love of the birds only begot a fierce jealousy, and she sent forth her servants to snare and slay the woodland choristers, so that she might have no rival in her boy’s love. But the boy’s reproaches touched the mother’s heart:
... “Now sweet, my mother, why trouble the birds so sore,