Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1905 · PDF PAGE 85

Orpheus

…ears That hide in profound Abysses of fears, Hidden and bound! The voice of tears Implores and impels ye, O lustres, with a tune that is strong as a seer’s. THE LUSTRES Fivefold the shape sublime that lifts its head Uniform, self-repeating, comparable At last to a man’s life: twice seven times dead Ere the light flickers in that citadel, Or the great whiteness lure his soul instead Of many-coloured earth: ere the strong spell Fail, and the Fates with iron-shapen shears Cut the frail silver, hide him from the years. Fivefold: the year that is in…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 32

Orpheus

… tunes his lyre. ORPHEUS FIRST word of my song, First tune of my lyre, Muse, loved of me long, Be near and inspire! Bright heart! Mother strong! Sweet sense of desire! Be near as I lift the first notes impassioned of fervour and fire! Not ever before Since Nature began Hath one cloven her core, Found the soul of her span ; No son that she bore Her spirit might scan ; But I, being born beyond Nature, have known her and yet am a man. Ye fieriest flowers, Life-stream of the world, In passionate bowers Of mystery curled, ct 33

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1905 · PDF PAGE 42

Orpheus

…blush, but I come And bow to thee dumb. ORPHEUS O blacker than hell, O bluer than heaven, O green as the dell Lit of sunlight at even! O strong as a spell! O bright as the levin ! Come forth! I invoke thee, O ice, by their anguish, the rocks thou hast riven! THE ICE My steep-lying masses, Mine innermost sheen, 43

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1905 · PDF PAGE 58

Orpheus

…t With the scarlet bloom ;— Shall ye in my melody live? Shall my song be not rather your tomb? Most musical moves The head of the corn ; Strong glorious loves Of its being are born. 59

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1905 · PDF PAGE 8

Orpheus

…t thou, love, m what sweet name I quicken” . Continues the tale of his wooing—‘‘So by some spelt divinely drawn” Orpheus’ song—'‘‘ Roll, strong life-current of these very veins” Concludes his lament—‘‘ So sped my wooing: now I surely think” PAGE 119 120 132 137 137 139 142 144 145 149 153

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1905 · PDF PAGE 92

Orpheus

…remble not, Thou ? Not move thee and hide From the light of my brow? Shall my arrows divide Not the heart of thee now? Art thou cased in strong iron to mock the spells that all others avow ? Art thou muffled or hidden In adamant brass? Is my music forbidden In Orcus to pass? Have I cursed thee and chidden? My flesh being grass, I curse not as yet, but command thee; the names that avail I amass. , No sound? no whisper? No answer to me? From dawn-star to Hesper I call upon thee! | 93

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1905 · PDF PAGE 134

Orpheus

…e— And others worth a tear. I thought of how a maiden man Might hear a deadly song And clasp a siren in his span, And feel her kiss grow strong To drag him with caresses wan Into the House of Wrong. Another: how the women grew Like vines of tender grape, And how they laughed as lovers do, And took a lover’s shape, And how men sought them, free to woo— To leave them, no escape! Another: how a golden cup A golden girl would pour, And whoso laughed and drank it up Grew wise and warrior : But whoso stayed to smile and sup Returned—ah, never more! A…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 148

Orpheus

…e phantoms (of itself create) In a mysterious sweet state, Wherein some tune began to move Whose likeness and whose life was love. Roll, strong life-current of these very veins, Into my lover’s soul, my soul that is! Thrill, mighty life of nerves, exultant strains Triumphant of all music in a kiss ! Fade! fade! O strenuous sense Into the soul intense Of life beyond your weak imagining! And, O thou thought, dissever Thy airy life for ever 149

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1905 · PDF PAGE 128

Orpheus

…comfited, The body broken, desolated, vile, Til nought remains but the memorial urn Of deep red gold, less golden than did burn Once the strong breast: the ash within is shed, Dust given for flowers : what memory shall turn i 129

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1905 · PDF PAGE 84

Orpheus

But I, my sweet song Outliveth the sun! Ye are many and strong; I am stronger, and one! Come forth! I invoke ye, O years, in my evening orison. THE YEARS Crowned with Eternity, beyond beginning; Sandalled with wings, Eternity’s; the end Far beyond sight of striving soul or sinning; Ourselves see not, nor know, nor comprehend. Reeling from chaos, unto Chronos winning, Devoured of Him our Father and our friend, This is our life, lead winged or footed golden : We pass, and each of other is unbeholden. Ranged in dim spectral order and procession, W…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 152

Orpheus

… myself: the “I” springs up again Bound to the wheel of speedless sense and pain, None loosing me. Past is the utter bliss ; Present the strong fact of the death, the stain Of the marred lives: I meditate awhile Not on the mere light of the girl, the smile Deepening down to the extremest kiss; Not of the long joys of the little isle Set in Ionian waters, where the years Passed, one long passion, too divine for tears, Too deep for laughter: but on that divine Sense beyond sense, the shadow of the spheres Lost in the all-pervading light of love: …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 153

Orpheus

…the wailing lute And wake the lyre: the mightier than me Drag up the courage in me to dispute The battle with despair: awake the strings Stronger than earth, than the immortal kings Alike of death and life: invoke the sea That I may cross her on the viewless wings Of song, find out the desolating river That girds the earth, unloose the silver quiver, Choosing an arrow of sharp song to run Down to the waters that lament for ever :—. And cleave them! That my song’s insistent spell Rive the strong gates of iron-builded hell, And move the heart of …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 77

Orpheus

SUMMER Full is the joy of Maidenhood made strong, Too proud to bend to swift Apollo’s kiss ; Rejoicing in its splendour, and the throng Of gaunt hounds leashless before Artemis. In strange exulting bliss The maiden stands, full-grown, with bounding breasts Bared to the noon, and narrow Keen eyes, that glance, dim fires that veil their crests To flame along the arrow Aimed at some gallant of ten tines perched high Branching against the sky His cedar-spreading horns: erect she stands, Holding in glimmering hands A silver bow across the shining we…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 97

Orpheus

…, ever! escaping me! But here where the wise pen And silver cadences outrunning song, And clear sweet clean-chiselled English, sharp and strong Of the one man among the latter men Who lived with Nature, saw her face to face, And died not: here in this consummate place, Immortal now, though the Antarctic sent Its mightiest coldest wave and rose and rent 98

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1905 · PDF PAGE 81

Orpheus

WINTER Know ye my children? From the old strong 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 …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 115

Orpheus

…s, or my sword In my heart’s acid where the blood began Long since to leap, and now drops deadly slow, Clotted with salt and sulphur and strong woe. I shall not die: the first sight of the sward Stained with the spectral corpse had stung me so, Not stabbed me, since I saw her and survive. I shall not die—Ah! shall I be alive? This hath no part in either: bale and bliss Forget me, careless if I rot or thrive. Heaven forgot me—or she were not dead ! And Hades—or I should not raise my head Now, and look wildly where I used to kiss, Gaze on the for…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 100

Orpheus

…ll ye knew me—ere the earth grew pale, And Time began, and all its fruit lay rotten, Once, when thou knewest me indeed, and fed At these strong breasts—Ah! but the days are dead ! Now, in the dusty corridors of Time, I am forgotten: Gaian language falters If I would teach thee half an hint sublime Shed of the rayless fire upon my altars. IO]

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1905 · PDF PAGE 86

Orpheus

…, the burning year of flame and fume That burns men up in fire’s sepulchral womb. Fivefold: the child, the frail, the delicate: Then the strong laughing mischief: then the proud Fight toward manhood and the sense elate, Creative power and passion : then the loud Assertion of young will, the quickening rate And strength in blood, in youth with life endowed, And firmness fastening; the last lustre’s span Consolidates and shows the perfect man. Fivefold : the humour changes as his child Calls him first “father” ; sense of strength divine Fills him…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 78

Orpheus

…hat sunny season By Love's sweet trap of treason. , So the bright girl is now a woman brighter ; And childhood sees a reason Beneath the strong stroke of the goodly smiter For all the past: and love at last is hers. No more the bosom’s pride demurs While in her womb the first faint pulse of motherhood soft stirs. 79

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