Collected Works (Vol. II)

ACTUS QUARTUS 105 MEDEA. But this is like That Indian fable! of a king: how he, Taking some woman—an indecent act Not proper to be done !—against the will Of priests or princes, sought the nuptial bed And ‘¢ Climbed the bed’s disastrous side, He found a serpent, not a bride ; And scarcely daring to draw breath, He passed the dumb night-hours with death, Till in the morning cold and gray The hooded fear glided away. Which morning saw ten thousand pay The price of jesting with a king !’— JASON. Indeed these toils and dangerous pursuits, Labours and journeys, go to make one mad. Well were it to beguile our weariness With song. MEDEA. And here is the sole king of song.| ORPHEUS. My song breaks baffled on the rocks of time If thy bewitching beauty be the theme. MEDEA. Sing me thy song, sweet poet, of the sea, That song of swimming when thy love lost sense Before the passion of the Infinite. JASON. The more so as my master warns me oft Of late how near that island is, where dwell The alluring daughters of Melpomene. 1 The ‘‘ fable" is Crowley's own, ORPHEUS.! Light shed from seaward over breakers bend- ing Kiss-wise to the emerald hollows : light divine Whereof the sun is God, the sea his shrine; Light in vibrations rhythmic; light unending ; Light sideways from the girdling crags extending Unto this lone and languid head of mine ; Light, that fulfils creation as with wine, Flows in the channels of the deep: light, rending The adamantine columns of the night, Is laden with the love-song of the ligit. Light, pearly-glimmering through dim gulf and hollow, Below the foam-kissed lips of all the sea ; Light shines from all the sky and up to me From the amber floors of sand: Light calls Apollo ! The shafts of fire fledged of the eagle follow The crested surf, and strike the shore, and flee Far from green cover, nymph-enchanted lea, Fountain, and plume them white as the sea- swallow, And turn and quiver in the ocean, seem- ing The glances of a maiden kissed, or dreaming. Light, as I swim through rollers green and gleaming, Sheds its most subtle sense to penetrate This heart I thought impervious to Fate, Now the sweet light, the full delight, is beaming 1 The song describes Waikiki Beach, near Honolulu.