Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1905 · PDF PAGE 75

Orpheus

…r own kissing fervour through its mesh. Last, glory of godhead! flickers, flames the fresh First faint frail rose and arrow of the dawn. SPRING Mild glimpses of the quiet moon, let through Tall groves of cedar, stain the glade; gleams mild The kirtle of the unweaned spring, stained blue From the blue breasts that suckle to the child. Through the new-leavéd trees The hidden stranger sees The moon’s sweet light, the shadows listening If a ghost-foot should fall: And if a ghost-voice call , Tremble the leaves and light-streaks of the spring. On wa…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 76

Orpheus

…om the golden-throated nightingale, Pale sobs of love and life With death and fear at strife, Fiercely beset and hardly conquering, When spring’s bright eyes at last Flash through the sullen past, And tune its pain to tears, its peace to sing. The earth’s lips cling To the child’s bosom, and low smiles revive ; Love is new-born upon the golden hour, And all the life of all the exultant spring Breathes in the wind that wakes the world alive Into the likeness of a flower. 77

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1905 · PDF PAGE 61

Orpheus

We gather to the sombre sound, as spring Had whispered, “ Follow,” hiding in her wing Her glorious head and flowing breast of wine. Though in the hollow of her heart be set So deep and awful a fire, though the net Of all her robes be frail as we are fine, We gather, listening to the living lyre Like falling water shot with amber fire, And blown aloft by winds even to heaven’s desire. Deep starry gems set in a silver sea, Sullen low voices of dark minstrelsy, Light whispers of strange loves, of silver woven, Dumb kisses and wild laughter followi…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 62

Orpheus

…ies, and see thee for a God, O sightless lyre that wails, O viewless voice that calls! Thy sound is in our depth and in her womb, Far in Spring’s milky breast, in Autumn’s gloom, In Summer's feast and song, in Winter’s funerals. In the dead hollow of the hills there rings, Sharp song, like frost hissing on silver wings, Or like the swelling tune we listen to for Spring’s. We come, we mountains, crowned and incense-bringing, Robed as white priests, the solemn anthem singing; Or as an organ thundering fiery tunes. We come, we greener hills, and r…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 23

Orpheus

…ps that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing. To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung, as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Everything that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart— Fall asleep, or hearing die. —Henry VII. . « - vocalem temere insecutz Orphea sylvee, Arte materna rapidos morantem Fluminum lapsus, celeresque ventos, Blandum et auritas fidibus canoris Ducere quercus. —Hor. Carm., Lib. I. xii.

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1905 · PDF PAGE 24

Orpheus

INTRODUCTORY ODE CALLIOPE, ORPHEUS Stra CALLIOPE IN the days of the spring of my being, When maidenly bent I above The head of the poet, and, seeing Not love, was the lyre of his love; When laurels I bore to the harper, When bays for the lyrist I bore, My life was diviner and sharper, My name in the Muses was more; When virgin I came to him stainless, When love was a pleasure and painless! What Destiny dreams and discovers The fragrance men know for a lover’s? Peace turned into laughter and tears, Borne down the cold stream of the years! Ant. a…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 87

Orpheus

…blime Of worlds—I invoke ye! Come forth, ye centuries! Come to the rhyme! THE CENTURIES How hardly a man , Though his strength were as a spring’s Shall stretch out his span To the width of my wings! The years are enfolden In my bosom golden, My periods Are the hours of the Gods. They have their plan In my seasons; all things Are woven in the span — Of the spread of my wings. My brazen gates cleft By shafts shed of time, Are ruined and left As the Gods sing their rhyme. 88

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1905 · PDF PAGE 56

Orpheus

…eams many visions of varied delight. O how shall my lyre Divide thee, dispart Thy water and fire, Thy soul and thy heart, Thy hills that spring higher, Thy flowers that upstart, How quire thee, my limitless love, with a lewd and a limited art? A fortress, a sphere, An arrow of flame; Let thy children appear At the sound of thy name! In my silence uprear The sweet guerdon of shame! Be they choral to hymn thee, O mother, thy magic ineffable fame! Last birth of the Sun, Best gift of the giver, Thou surely art One! As the moon on the river, 57

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1905 · PDF PAGE 7

Orpheus

…Earth Chorus—The Earth . . . Str. 8 Orpheus in alternate invocation Ant. 8 Time— Semichorus a5 The Hours ” B® The Seasons— Semichorus a® Spring 99 p® Summer » > Autumn » 5° Winter Semichorus 7° The Years » 5° The Lustres Spirit Water . the five- Earth . . fold idea. Fire Semichorus e® The Centuries a’ Centuries Semichorus . vate sae # Eternity Str. y Orpheus Ant. y Death— (Suppressed antistrophe, Death being silent. His reply is really given in Books II., III., IV.) Parabasis: The Poet | Epode: Nature BOOK II. Orpheus laments his wife—‘‘ Come b…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 94

Orpheus

…m the fragments divided that seem past a man’s or a god's control. I, seeing the life Of the flowers renew, The victorious strife Of the spring run through, The child’s birth rife With loftier dew— I know the deep truth in myself ; see acacia in cypress and yew. Death is not at all! ’Tis a mask or a dream! The things that befall Only slumber or seem ! They fear; they appal— They are not as ye deem! Death died when I dipped my lyre in the sweet Heli- conian stream! Give praise to your lord, All souls that draw breath, All flowers of the sward! F…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 133

Orpheus

…Within the veil of grey. And there within the circled light I saw a dancing thing, Most like the tender-leavéd night Of moonrise seen in spring, A shadow luminous and white Like a ghost beckoning. And then dim visions came to me, Faint memories of fear: As when the Argo put on sea Such stories we did hear, 134

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1905 · PDF PAGE 47

Orpheus

…e, I madden, I wail! Come forth! I invoke ye, O powers, in the waters that purple and pale. Come forth in your pleasure, O fountains and springs |. Come dance me a measure Unholpen of wings! Show, show the deep treasure, Unspeakable things ! Come forth! I invoke ye, O fountains, I sweep the in- vincible strings. THE FOUNTAINS In the heather deeply hidden, From the caverns darkly drawn, In the woodlands man-forbidden, In the gateways of the dawn, In the glad sweet glades descended, On the stark hills gathered high, Where the snows and trees are …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 54

Orpheus

… birth, Still I had cleft me A way in her girth! I tune the loud lyre once again to the mother of men in her mirth. O mighty and glad In spring-time and summer! O tearful and sad When the sun is grown dumber, 55

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1905 · PDF PAGE 130

Orpheus

… things— O song! where wanderest on forgetful wings? Shall these wild numbers help thee to thine own, Or change the winter’s gramarye to spring’s ? Rather beguile the tedious mourning hours With memory of the long-forgotten bowers, Where loves resurged from cave and grove to throne, From nuptial banquet to the bed of flowers! Rather forget the near catastrophe, And turn my music toward Eurydice, Awake in day-dream all the ancient days, When love first blossomed on the springing tree ! Let me recall the days beyond regret, And tune my lyre to lo…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 118

Orpheus

…man, but even as God Whose day is like an zon. _Love hath nor station, stage, nor period : But is at once in his inane abode Beneath the spring Dircean.) 119

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1905 · PDF PAGE 126

Orpheus

Unripe, are blasted in the blossoming spring— This is a miracle, not the other thing! Nature insults herself, blasphemes her God, Thus cutting short the life’s hard happening. Nor would I suffer thus, nor she repine Had my wife faded (as rose-tinted wine Bleached in the sunlight) reached her period And fallen gently in the arms divine, Caressing arms of pale Persephone, And bathed her in death’s river tenderly, Washing the whole bright body, the long limbs, The clothing hair, the face, the witchery Of all the smiling shape in the dark stream, A…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 147

Orpheus

…lympus’ ecstasies! Omnipotent! but to control The first breath of a human soul !—” The thunder rolled through heaven again, Void was the spring-delighted plain Of that gigantic phantasy. I turned to my Eurydice Even as she turned. The faint breath glows,— The lightning of a living rose. The bright eyes gleam—night’s spotless stars Glimmering through folded nenuphars. The red mouth moves, still to the word: “Yes, love!” and “yes, love!” Then I heard No sound and saw no sight—the world Folded its mighty wings, and curled Its passion round us; bad…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 149

Orpheus

While the bright sounds are lifted up to spring Beyond this tide of being, Shadows and sense far fleeing Into a shadow deeper than the Ocean When passes all the mind’s commotion To a serener sky, a mighty calm emotion ! - The whole world fades, folds over its wide pinions Into a darkness deeper than its own. Silence hath shattered all the dream-dominions Of life and light: the grey bird’s soul is flown Into a soundless night, Lampless: a vivid flight Beyond the thrones and stars of heaven down hurled, Till the great blackness heaves An iron bre…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 144

Orpheus

…to the words fresh flowers that distil Uttermost fragrance in the mind and will, The unsuspected blossom! Whatis the change—new birth of spring-time kisses Alonein all these water-wildernesses ? What change? what loveliness ! Comes this to all? I heard my sisters crying No tale like this—O! were I only lying Asleep amid the ferns, my soul would weep Over and over in its endless sleep; ‘Yes, love!” and “yes!” and “yes!” So by some spell divinely drawn She came to me across the dawn, With open arms to me; and sobbed “Yes, love!” and “ Yes, love!”…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 81

Orpheus

…breast Not weary yet of life’s grey change, not drawn Into the utter peace of death, the rest Of the dim hour that lingers ere the dawn, Spring these that laugh upon thee. In the snow See forests bare and gaunt, Where wingéd whispers haunt, Lighting the dull sky with a slumberous glow; Hear the strange sounds of winter chaunt; Feel the keen wisdom of the winter thrill Young hearts with passionate foretaste Of death in some wild waste Of deserts darkening at some wild god’s will, Of frozen steppes awaiting the repose That only death discovers, n…

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