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Page 1 of 21910 · PDF PAGE 170
…The thick darkness of the Emptiness of Things. Yet in the midst appears a certain glory veiling the figure of a tall stern man, the king Alexander. In his hand is a black rod clothed with twin glittering snakes, the royal Uraeus serpents of ancient Khem ; at its point gleams faint and blue A star of six rays, whose light now illumines the pale and tortured features of a man, with outstret- ched arms, who is hanging (apparently) in space. It is Issa, but the weariness is gone ; and noble-strong is the scarred brow of his agony. ALEXANDER. In the…
1910 · PDF PAGE 105
…In our innermost ravines Inaccessible to man, That our perfect peace in Pan Hide from us the knowledge of This eclipse of joy and love ! ALEXANDER Is there nothing but distress In the mystic vision lurking ? IST NYMPH Ah ! but were thy loveliness With the God supremely working ! ALEXANDER Nymph, thy face is like a flower Fairer than the driven foam ! Shining like an honeycomb Is thy body — and thy soul Shoots me to the gilded goal. I shall master yet the hour. SATYRS King of Kings, we bow before Thee ; As our Master we adore Thee.
1910 · PDF PAGE 100
THE RED STAR. 47 ALEXANDER He was softer than a dove ; He was made for human love. I have given him for food To the lusty panic rood, And the obscure brotherhood. IST NYMPH So the doves of men begotten Shall be plucked, and bruised, and rotten. 2ND NYMPH So shall full-fed brothel-knaves Kick them to indecent graves In the name of the sweet Dove That is God — for God is Love. ALEXANDER See ye naught but cruelty In the infinite To-Be ? Look you, I have seen a star Threatening pestilence or war In the vault that hangs — a splash Like a scar.
1910 · PDF PAGE 147
94 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ALEXANDER Here come the bottle back, washed bright. Yes, this is certainly the seal Of Solomon. GOVINDA Ifeel That we are on the brink of some strange sight. CHAU The whole event has seemed improbable. Scribes, you record this well ! Or I will have you sliced with the keen steel My cook keeps razor-sharp for salted swine. Nine thousand cuts, nine hundred cuts, And ninety cuts and nine Cut exquisitely fine, And the last slash in your guts If by an hair’s breadth your recital Obscure the true, omit the vital ! ALEXANDER Ou…
1910 · PDF PAGE 190
…nebriate : Rome is flung upon her fate. (He wheels with the rest, as they march down the hill. Above, a faintly luminous Shadow, appears Alexander the king, or as it were an image of his image.) ALEXANDER The flood sweeps on From horizon to horizon. Beauty, strength, virtue, all are gone. (the eclipse passes.) Now sudden springs the natural face Of all the earth’s old grace. The broad sun smiles, as if that fatal close Of the revel in the garden of Eros
1910 · PDF PAGE 173
I20 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ALEXANDER I too have died to Pan, and he Hath begotten upon me A secret wonder that must wait For the hour of the falling of thy fate, Nineteen centuries shalt thou Plague earth with that agonizing brow, And then that age of sordid strife Give place to the aeon of love and life. A lion shall rise and swallow thee, Bringing back life into Arcady. So strong shall he roar that the worlds shall quake And the waters under the heaven break, That the earth, of thy father’s hate accurst, Shall be greener and gladder than at fir…
1910 · PDF PAGE 41
…gan love, Pagan music, Pagan mysticism, and we find the Sabbatarians pretty sick about it, like the fox that lost his tail. We next find Alexander, one of the guardians, anxious about humanity. He is not squeamish about a little blood, his own or another’s, and he discovers the plot. Next we find the dove achieving his foul purpose, not on a pure laughing Pagan girl, but on a furtive lecherous girl, already half a Christian. Enough of this painful subject ! Now comes the Nativity, with the guardians, under Alexander’s presidency, on the watch. …
1910 · PDF PAGE 88
…zure. The grove is completely hidden from the outer world by its ilex, and by the dark fastnesses of yew and cypress about it. The man — Alexander, the great king — stands upright, facing the God, his arms raised as if to smite with the sword. ALEXANDER Naked I stand In the Garden of Pan. Bare is the brand That maketh a man. The saying is said ;
1910 · PDF PAGE 145
…sane ! For all this pious pain Naught but an old brass bottle ! GOVINDA Maybe it holds the two and seventy Jinn That Solomon screwed in. ALEXANDER More like, the wine that Dionysus spilled From Cyprus grapes distilled. CHAU We lose our wagers ? It may be Best to unscrew it, and to see.
1910 · PDF PAGE 135
…ad like bright stars Amid the milk of the great galaxy. CHAU Thy body gapes like a valley of deodars Between two snowy hills in Tartary. ALEXANDER Ho ! Ho ! a million rats Herald the brat’s First yelp. A vast company of rats issue from her, and rush squeaking into the darkness. MIRIAM God be mine help ! Adrammelek exacts a death For every dance with Astoreth. GOVINDA Cling to the ass-god, quean ! Now while his loud obscene
1910 · PDF PAGE 143
…jewels, and divine medicaments, And goat-hair broideries, and silken tents — And thirty diamonds of the purest water, It is a daughter ! ALEXANDER I take it — and yours too, my lord. Maybe You both are wrong. GOVINDA True, this much mystery Veils the whole matter — it were hard to say. CHAU Shang Ti ! how fierce a bray The amorous ass gives. MIRIAM Heave, o heave, my sides ! Stretch ! Split ! This pang decides
1910 · PDF PAGE 148
…allenge him lightly ? CHAU Truly, a marvel. Come, little man ! We kiss your hands, and sail back home Over the desert and over the foam. ALEXANDER And I go back to the grove of Pan. GOVINDA What is thy name ? I will proclaim Thy marvellous fame From the Gulf of Kutch to the shores of Orissa. MIRIAM I pray your Majesty, call him Issa.
1910 · PDF PAGE 144
THE BLUE DWARF. 9I For life or death. Now ! — — Stretch ! — Plague on the wretch ! Friends, ease me — with a scimitar ! ALEXANDER We learnt not that from the dark Star. MIRIAM Why then, be cursed ! My belly is about to burst. The hag and the baboon come forward. THE HAG Ho ! we will lift the prudish latch. Dear apeling, hold the torches while I catch This monster. So. Dispatch ! MIRIAM God ! let it be a boy. I would enjoy His love. Who hath come forth with such keen pain Owes keener pleasure, going back again. A curse upon that Dove.
1910 · PDF PAGE 102
THE RED STAR. 49 IST NYMPH Name the sharp accursed shape, Stigma of its prodigy ! 2ND NYMPH Is it but a whirling storm ? ALEXANDER Nay ! the star is cruciform. IST NYMPH Thus the holy cross is cloven From Pan’s purpose purple-woven. Even for centuries nine and ten, Life of women — death of men ! In that sinister sad star Men shall bear the upright bar, Hanged for honesty and truth, Wisdom, courage, love, or youth. Women bear the cross-bar, living In the filth beyond believing. Svelte or buxom, fair or dark, Go to the maw of the greedy shark
1910 · PDF PAGE 97
…e lamb-soft throat, And the crimson blood in his cheeks afloat Flames, an irradiate blaze to environ Etna with mountains of molten iron. ALEXANDER Pan ! o Pan ! dissolve in bliss ! Take these severed lips to kiss ! Thou and I are partners of This, the sacrament of love. By the violate babe’s blue eyes, By his sucked-out arteries, By the blood-bedabbled gold, By the body void and cold, Make me partner of thy power Over this obscurest hour !
1910 · PDF PAGE 99
…s, the world shall bleed In the vilest vice of vices. 2ND NYMPH While the riddle thou hast ree’d Mocks them with its “ Blood suffices ”. ALEXANDER Know ye, bright ones, who I am ? I have slain a thing adored At this altar to its Lord, As a butcher kills a lamb. IST NYMPH That shall be — thou rightly fearest — Till the Balance weigh the Ram. 2ND NYMPH Men shall even slay their dearest For the sake of that slain lamb.
1910 · PDF PAGE 149
…THE HAG The little beast is double-jointed. Dance a spring, thou springal strutting Like a stag in the glades at the season of rutting ! ALEXANDER Dance, o thou imp Of the bottle of brass With the hag and the pimp And the ox and the ass !
1910 · PDF PAGE 142
…phant. For now the mouth springs open, and a yell Like the shriek of the throat of hell Bursts, and is choked by a vomit of black worms. ALEXANDER All this most critically confirms Our calculations. Boy ! the long pale glass Fashioned of ambergris and chrysopras. Fill it with the old, the ripe Satyrion, And bear it to their Majesties. Anon We shall see ? — GOVINDA Sure, a son
1910 · PDF PAGE 98
…R O the rich red blood that swims on Over all the malachite ! 2ND SATYR Ah ! the banquet gold and crimson Like the sun afeast at night ! ALEXANDER Out of the fume of the blood arise Two lithe nymphs with amethyst eyes, Sparkling with the wanton pleasure That their small and laughing scarlet Mouths betrayed, as overmeasure Bubbled out the dancing harlot Music of them, snaky slim, Panther-smooth and light of limb Wreathed with wealth of mystic berry, As they leap, divinely drunken On the very blood that gat them, Insolent and lewd and merry — Wit…
1910 · PDF PAGE 131
…ng in her golden car Yoked to ox and ass that prance In their evil Hinnom-dance ! I am writhing with my death Born of the infernal Star. ALEXANDER Nay, our lady, we are come To thy worship — high and holy ; From our heaven-wide halidom To the manger dark and lowly We have brought taraxacum, Mandrake, amrit, myrrh and moly ; Many a royal gift of gree From the land of Danae, From the coral-breeding sea, From the steppes of Tartary ! GOVINDA I have brought a treasure-chest Full of gold, red gold galore,