Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 90

Songs of the Spirit

A RONDEL. THE wail of the wind in the desolate land Lifts voice where the heaven lies pallid and blind ; Sweeps over the hills from the sea and the sand The wail of the wind. The earth gives a bleak echo back, and behind Lurk sorrows and sins in the grasp of a hand, And love and despair are the lords of mankind. The mountains are steadfast ; immutably grand, Bid me to their bosom the chain to unbind : At peace and at pity I now understand The wail of the wind. 80

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1898 · PDF PAGE 85

Songs of the Spirit

…ay the battle proceeds and alway the tempest re-quickens, Pregnant with thunder, delivered when the swift knife is let flash ; Alway the wind has its will and the slaughter-steam rises and thickens, Alway the sea is a lion, enraged by the wind and its lash, Alway the heavens resound with the thunder’s unchangeable crash. Heaven has conquered, behold ! and the hosts of the demons are fleeing, Dawn drives before her fair feet the feather-light wings of the gale, Silent the tower rears aloft its front into beauty and seeing, 75

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1898 · PDF PAGE 40

Songs of the Spirit

…rible, Down to the nether Hell. Yet there seems time. God’s grief has not forgotten His mighty arm, and with His pitying breath A strong wind woke me ere my boat grew rotten With venom of the stream, that quivereth Now as He blew upon it—fish and bird Live at that silent word ! And I arose to seek the oars of Lying Wherewith I had embarked—the wind had torn Their wood to splinters—“ Jesus ! I am dying ! Send me Thy cross to fashion some unborn Oarage of Truth to quit this stream of Death ! ” O vain, O wasted breath ! I have no strength. Upright…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 115

Songs of the Spirit

EPILOGUE. LIKE snows on the mountain, unlifted By weather or wind as it blows, In hollows the heaps of it drifted, The splendour of fathomless snows ; So measure and meaning are shifted to fashion a rose. The garland I made in my sorrow Was woven of infinite peace ; The joy that was white on the morrow Made music of viols at ease ; The thoughts of the Highest would borrow the roar of the seas. This pastime of hope and of labour Fled singing through bountiful hours, With sleep for a bride, for a neighbour 105

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1898 · PDF PAGE 67

Songs of the Spirit

…e mountains now with this faint snow embroidery. Now the white flakes decrease, Wastwater lies in peace, Kissed by the breezes where the wind once bit ; Gable alone doth stand, A Pyramid more grand 57

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1898 · PDF PAGE 47

Songs of the Spirit

THE VIOLET’S LOVE-STORY. AMONG the lilies of the sacred stream There grew a violet, like a maiden’s dream, And when the wind passed over them, it stirred Their white soft petals with its quiet word. The sun looked on them and their leaves were glad ; Only the purple blossom there, that had No kindred by the stream, let fall a tear, Half wishing for the autumn of the year. But when the summer came, the violet guessed, By some slow dream that thrilled her gentle breast, That some sweet thing might come to her ; she thought Through the long days o…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 83

Songs of the Spirit

…IN the storm that divides the wild night from the passionate kiss of the morning Stands there a tower by the sea unshaken by wave and by wind, Lightning assails, and the sea breaks vain on the battlements, scorning Even to fling back the foam shattered before and behind, Save for one window its height rears up unbroken and blind. Here may a man gaze out to the night by the stars of it stricken, Out to the blind black air that the lightning divides and is dumb ; Here, and look back in the tower where pallid shades murmur and quicken, Low laughs …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 36

Songs of the Spirit

SONNET. THE woods are very quiet, and the stream Hardly awakes the stilled ear with its word ; The voice of wind above like dawn is heard, And all the air moves up, a sultry steam, Here in the flower-land, where I lie and dream And understand the silence of the bird ; My sorrow and my weakness are interred In the deep water where the pebbles gleam. I rouse the force persistent of my will To compel matter to the soul’s desire, To make Heaven aid the mind that would aspire To touch its borders, and to drink their fill At those far fountains whenc…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 66

Songs of the Spirit

…s the lake’s intolerable waste, And from the wave is born A maiden like the morn, In sudden foam, an Aphrodite chaste, Clean as the cold wind blown From each abyss of stone, Where the north whirlpool rushes down with wreckage interlaced. Where on the bank I stand In this gray barren land Of winter, and the doubtful glint of spring, If on the hills there glow Through the thick mist of snow Sunshine from westward in the evening ; While in a dell appear Violets and snowdrops clear, Buds of the larch, and swallows on the wing, Till once again the s…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 116

Songs of the Spirit

…oves of the leafiest June, When Artemis’ arrows are fleeter than rays of the moon. My hope in the ocean was founded, Nor changed for the wind and the tide ; My love by the heaven was bounded, And knew not a barrier beside ; 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 78

Songs of the Spirit

… a king. This pæan of the sky they sing. CHANT OF DEMONS. We ride upon the fury of the blast, Fast, fast. We race upon the horses of the wind, The tameless thunder follows hard behind, Fast, and too fast. The lightning heralds us, the iron blast Lends us its splendour for a steed fire-shod, The steed of God ! 68

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1898 · PDF PAGE 6

Songs of the Spirit

…igh hope, and the pure purpose thine, Higher and purer than stars shine, And thine the unexpressed delight To hold high commune with the wind That sings, in midnight black and blind, Strange chants, the murmurs of the mind, To grasp the hands of heaven and find the lords of light. Mine was the holy fire that drew Its perfect passion from the dew, And all the flowers that blushed and blew On sunny slopes by little brooks. Mine the desire that brushed aside The thorns, and would not be denied, And sought, more eager than a bride, The cold grey se…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 86

Songs of the Spirit

Only the window is dark ; only there hangs 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 w…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 16

Songs of the Spirit

…heart’s black night must act the sun’s eclipse ; My groans must play the earthquake, till I quail At my own dark imagining ; and now The wind is bitterer ; the air breeds snow ; 6

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1898 · PDF PAGE 71

Songs of the Spirit

…ll the gates of sense swing wide instead, When the will of men is sleeping, and when the mind Hears no sobs of spirits weeping above the wind, All the subtle paths are clear for wicked breath, And no angel warns the ear that this is death ? Is this fiend the Love that came when youth rose up Purple with its holy flame, and flower-fair cup, Gave me of his burning wine to fire my heart, Filled me with desires divine toward my art ? Is he then the Love who robs me of my aim, Doubts me if my heart still throbs with that cold flame, Calm and eager p…

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