Collected Works (Vol. III)

126 ORPHEUS Trio: Minos, Eacus, Rhadamanthus—‘' Brethren, what need of wonder.” Orpheus continues his voyage—‘' 4k me/ ILfind ye but ill counsellors." Invokes Hades—'' Now 7s the gold gone of the year, and gone.” Invokes Persephone—‘' /z Asia, on the Nysian plains, she played.” Persephone awakes—'‘' 4h me / I feel a stirring in my blood.” Orpheus pleads with her—‘' And therefore, O most beautiful and mild,” Persephone invokes Hades -‘' Ah me/ no fruit for guerdon.” Orpheus invokes the Furies—'' /z vain, O thou veiled.” Septet: The Furies, Orpheus, Hades, Persephone, Echidna—‘' Ha / who invokes? What horror rages.” Orpheus invokes Hermes—‘‘ O Light in Light / O flashing wings offire!" Orpheus’ song of triumph—'' The magical task and the labour is ended.” Continues to recount his journey—" So singing I make reverence and retire,” Sings his triumph—‘' O Light of Apollo.” Sings, but with misgiving—‘' Adas/ that ever the dark place.” BOOK IV Company of Mzenads—'' Evoe! Evoe Ho! Jacche! lacche/” sSong—'' Hail, O Dicenysus! Hail,” ‘' Fvoe Ho! Give me to drink,” Hymn to Dionysus—'‘' Hazl, child of Semelé.” ‘* He is here! Hes here!" Dionysus—'‘ J bring ye wine from above.” Mzenads—'‘' O sweet soul of the waters! Chase me not." Orpheus his spell—'' Unity uttermost showed." His allocution—‘‘ Worship with due rite, orderly attire,” His hymn to Pan—'' Jn the spring, in the loud lost places,” His alarm—'' What have I said? What have I done ?” Lament for Orpheus—Quartet: a Spirit, the River Hebrus, Calliope, the Lesbian Shore—‘' What is ? what chorus swells." Sappho's song—'‘' Woe is me/ the brow of a brazen morning.” Duet: Calliope, the Lesbian Shore—‘' Silence. J hear a voice.” Finale. Nuith—‘' Anough, It is ended, the story.” WARNING. May I who know so bitterly the tedium of this truly dreadful poem be permitted to warn all but the strongest and most desperate natures from the task of reading or of attempt- ing to read it? Thave spent more than three years in fits of alternate enthusiasm for, and disgust of, it. My best friends have turned weeping away when I introduced its name into conversation; my most obsequious sycophants (including myself) were revolted when I approached the subject, even from afar. I began Book I. in San Francisco one accursed day of May 1901. I was then a Qabalist, deeply involved in ceremonial magic, with a Pantheon of Egypto-Christian colour, in fact, the mere bouillon of which my ‘‘ Tannhauser ’” was the froth. The idea was to do the ‘‘ biggest thing ever done in lyrics.” I bound myself by an oath to admit no rhyme unless three times repeated ; to average some high percentage of double rhymes—in brief, to perform a gigantic juggle with the unhappy English language. The whole of this first book is technically an ode (!!!) and was so designed. So colossal an example of human fatuity truly deserves, and shall have, a complete ex- posure.! Book I. was finished in Hawaii, ere June expired, and Book IT. begun. I had just begun to study the Theosophic writings—their influence, though slight, is apparent. So intent was I on producing a 1 Vide the Contents. Can the Spirit of Per- versity attribute the unwieldiness of the struc- ture to its formal symmetry and perfection?