Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 60

Songs of the Spirit

…ains and fresh grass by magic spell Are suddenly around me. And above I hear the voice my visions know so well : “ Well striven all this day against the power of Hell ! ” I know these mercies still diviner grow Each day I strive, but should I sit and rest One hour of dawn, and cry, “ I will not go Another step without more sleep,” that blest Dove flies away, the fountains are repressed, The grass is withered, and the angry sky Rages more fierce that day, and from the crest Of black foul mountains comes a bitter cry : “ He that returneth now sha…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 61

Songs of the Spirit

…a fountain never dry, And of Life’s guerdon gather in the whole, And on celestial manna satisfy my soul. Each night new failure and each day fresh strength, A sense of something nearer day by day ; Though the ill road’s intolerable length, League upon league, fling back the torrid ray Of the fierce sunlight night can scarce allay With the incessant beating of cool wings, And men’s bleached skeletons infest the way, Yet Hope her passion like a flower brings, And Courage ranks me with unconquerable kings. So, in the power of these who guard my pa…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 51

Songs of the Spirit

THE FAREWELL OF PARACELSUS TO APRILE. THOU Sun, whose swift desire to-day is dull, And all ye hosts of heaven, whose lips are mute, And trees and flowers and oceans beautiful Among whose murmurs I have struck this lute With joy supreme or agony acute, And love transcending everything alway, Pity me, pity, since the poisonous root Of parting strikes the beauty of the day ; We meet for the last time beside the ocean gray. Soul of my soul, we never can forget— But, is our parting burnt across the skies ? Is the last word said ? Must our lips be se…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 18

Songs of the Spirit

When he dips down beyond the far flat land, Know never more the day and night apart, Know not where frost has laid his iron hand, Save only that it fastens on my heart ; Save only that it grips with icy fire These veins no fire of hell could satiate ; Save only that it quenches this desire. Let me pass out beyond the city gate. 8

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1898 · PDF PAGE 101

Songs of the Spirit

VESPERS. THE incense steams before the Christ, It wraps His feet with grey, A perfumed melancholy mist, Tears sacred from the day ; And awe, a holiness, I wist, More sweet than man may say. I bend my head to kiss the brow, Scarred and serene and wide, The bosom and the loin-cloth now And where the blood has dried, The blood whose purple tide doth flow From out the smitten side. The fragrance of his skin begets Desire of holy things ; 91

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1898 · PDF PAGE 9

Songs of the Spirit

…............................... 27 The Student ....................................................... 31 The Priest Speaks. (Boccaccio. Day IV. Tale VIII.) 32 Passover ............................................................ 36 The Violet’s Love-Story ....................................... 37 The Farewell of Paracelcus to Aprile ................... 41 A Spring Snowstorm in Wastdale ........................ 55 In Neville’s Court, Trinity College, Cambridge ..... 59 Succubus .......................................................... 60 A Ro…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 95

Songs of the Spirit

…old The flocks on heaven’s steep. Refreshed, encouraged, lightened, Sent on the Way Whose Sun and Star have brightened From dawning into day, I set my face, a flint, Toward where the holy glint Of lamps affords the hint That leads me—where it may. 85

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1898 · PDF PAGE 109

Songs of the Spirit

ASTROLOGY. A LONELY spirit seeks the midnight hour, When souls have power To cast away one moment bonds of clay, And touch the day With pallid wistful lips beyond the earth, And bring to birth New thoughts with which life long has travailed ; As if one dead Should rise and utter secrets of the tomb, And from hell’s womb Or heaven’s breast bring all the load of fears, Toils of long years, Sorrows of life and agonies of death, Hard caught-up breath, The labouring hands of love, the cheeks of shame, The gloomy flame 99

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1898 · PDF PAGE 108

Songs of the Spirit

…es no lightning in the broken East ; His awful thunders listen and are dumb ; Earth gapes not for that sin ; the skies renew At break of day their vestiture of blue. 98

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1898 · PDF PAGE 98

Songs of the Spirit

…crown of night. And I beheld his robe, and on its hem Were writ unlawful words to say, Broidered like lilies, with a gem More clear than day. And round him shone so wonderful a light As when on Galilee Jesus once walked, and clove the night And calmed the sea. I scarce could see his features for the fire That dwelt about his brow, Yet, for the whiteness of my own desire, I see him now ; Because my footsteps follow his, and tread The awful bounds of heaven, and make 88

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1898 · PDF PAGE 30

Songs of the Spirit

…n thy strength ; Clothe limbs with lustiness, and mind with might, That, communing with me, though for an hour, Thou mayest conquer when day comes at length.” 20

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1898 · PDF PAGE 42

Songs of the Spirit

THE PRIEST SPEAKS. (Boccacio. Day IV. Tale VIII.) LAY them together for the sake of Love Within a little plot of piteous earth, When life’s last flower is faded in the sun. Lay them together in the tender ground That summer showers may shed a trembling tear. And summer breezes whisper melodies Of pity. Lay them there, and when the sky Opens a lingering eyelash of deep cloud, And the sea sparkles out from under it To kiss the earth into awakening From the dream-slumbers that its fancies weave— Fancies of starlight on the lucent sea Gleaming from…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 29

Songs of the Spirit

…emely wise, And pass with thee the gates that must be passed. O Night, on thee is set our only hope, Because our eyes, to tender for the day, Are dazed with sunlight, and poor fingers grope For those far truths that mock our vague en- deavour, Whilst we may find in thee the secrets grey Of all things God would fain have hid for ever. 19

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1898 · PDF PAGE 25

Songs of the Spirit

…this the end of life ? Voice. Thy Life begins. Ph. Strange Voice, I hear thee, and obey. Perchance I have not lived so far. Perchance to-day, Like a spring-flower that slowly opens out Its willing petals to the tender dawn, My soul may open to the knowledge of A dawn of new thought that may lead—— Voice. To God. Ph. Hope hardly dared to name it ! 15

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1898 · PDF PAGE 15

Songs of the Spirit

Amsterdam, December 23rd, 1897. LET me pass out beyond the city gate. All day I loitered in the little streets Of black worn houses tottering, like the fate That hangs above my head even now, and meets Prayer and defiance as not hearing it. They lean, these old black streets, a little sky Peeps through the gap, the rough stone path is lit Just for a little by the sun, and I Watched his red face pass over, fade away To other streets, and other passengers, Saw him take pleasure where the heathen pray, Saw him relieve the hunter of his furs, All t…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 116

Songs of the Spirit

…e ; My faith beyond heaven was grounded, as God to abide. Though death be the stain on our roses, The roses of heaven are white ; Though day on the world of us closes, The stars only dream of the night As of music that roars and reposes and dies in delight. 106

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1898 · PDF PAGE 50

Songs of the Spirit

… in the bridal kisses kissed to death.” So grew the newer blossom and was glad : Sweet little hopes her faint fair forehead had That one day such a death might crown her days. And so God too was glad, the story says. 40

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1898 · PDF PAGE 7

Songs of the Spirit

…ge like castles built of sand Until the sweet unchanging end. Happy not only that my eye Single and strong may win the sky, But that one day the birds that fly Heard your fair friendship call me by the name of friend. vii

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1898 · PDF PAGE 28

Songs of the Spirit

…on the moon’s dark face, So that her silver lustre might rejoice The fiery lover, the sharp nightingale, And those pale mortals whom the day beholds. Asleep, because the many bid them slave From dusk to dawn being poor ; and braided up The loose hair of all trees and flowers, and made Their one white light divide to red and green And violet and the hues innumerable Lesser than these, and gave man hope at last With the invariable law of death Abundant in new life, and having filled The world with music, dost demand of us “ Is my work meaningless…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 86

Songs of the Spirit

…gs like a veil Sleep on the chamber and clings. Heard I a woman-fiend wail ? Heard I the sound of a kiss ? Has man been destroyed in the daylight, Man whom the night could not quell ? What angel fled weeping away ? There in the East there extends a white light devouring the grey light, There the sun rises and brings hope with the dawn of the day, Silence hides certainty—surely voices of angels that pray, Surely the sound of delight, and of praise, and unspeakable glory Rings in the wind like a bell, and wakes the white air of the lea, All the b…

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