FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
100 matching pages
Page 1 of 51907 · PDF PAGE 274
…ection between sorrow and desire , as we have seen , is vividly described by Crowley in many of his poems . In “ The Nameless Quest ” we find the yearn ing “ For One beyond all song .” 1 In “ The Triumph of Man ” we again find the same idea crystallized , but in “ The Ultimate Voyage ,” the aspirant , on his spiritual journey towards the Supreme Knowledge , at one point on his journey all but attains Nirvana . In many other poems do we find this idea of Nir vana . In “ Why Jesus Wept ” we have : Thy flower - life is shed Into eternity , A wavel…
1907 · PDF PAGE 257
…ence , bending its course towards God in its own unutterable ideal . With burning eyes intent to penetrate The black circumference , and find out God . 3 In “ The Alchemist , ” or in that beautiful poem “ The Farewell of Paracelsus to Aprile .” “ Struggling in vain to what one hopes the best ." 4 We find this larger hope is here the keynote , as it is in so many of Crowley's poems ; to mention perhaps the most noted , we find this sacred flame flashing forth in " Aceldama ," “ Paracelsus ," " The Ultimate Voyage ," " The Name less Quest ," “ Th…
1907 · PDF PAGE 100
…ll as usual lie directly between these extremes , and in this case , in the region of Use . If now , supposing at one end of our pole we find Lust seated crimson as a rose , then at the other we shall find Chastity white as a lily . This system of extremes has during the world's history exerted an overwhelming force on the will of man . Beholding a satyr he worshipped a virgin ; feel ing the ills of the flesh , he conceived the bliss of the soul . This diametric opposition , verging ever towards the extreme circumference of utility , has given …
1907 · PDF PAGE 58
…ace of a Sadistic sow . In “ Why Jesus Wept," we have the ephemeral and headstrong passion of youth ; whilst in “ The Tale of Archais we find it burning only as a pure and lambent flame , overcoming all adversity , sacrificing self - love and even self - honour to attain the ideal of its purpose . Love is the predominant power in the universe ; over and over again we shall find this enforced , greater than fame , than wealth , than glory , greater than knowledge ,
1907 · PDF PAGE 135
…or this is passion , if not quite so pure as some we have already seen , yet still passion of an unlustful nature . In “ The Flight ” we find in the following lines a still deeper glow : The snow -bright weather Calls us beyond the grassy downs , to be Beside the sea , The slowly breathing Ocean of the south . Oh , make thy mouth A rosy flame like the most perfect star Whose kisses are So red and ripe ! Oh , let thy limbs entwine Like love with mine !? In the third act of “ The Argonauts ,” we find the love of Medea is no longer passion , but f…
1907 · PDF PAGE 109
…st ! Act II opens with two beautiful songs . Venus sings the praise of spring and summer , and Tannhäuser that of autumn and winter . He finds the latter chill season the best : But best is grim December , The Goatish God his power ; The Satyr blows the ember , And pain is passion's flower ; When blood drips over kisses , And madness sobs through wine : Ah mine ! The snake starts up and hisses And strikes and I am thine !3 In the above we still find the now almost dead echo of his higher self , yet Venus entices him on , compar ing their fierce…
1907 · PDF PAGE 275
…escend , re -gather , kindle , grow , Till from one virgin bosom flows a river Of white devotion adamant for ever . ' We might expect to find this idea in “ Tannhäuser,” and do in the following verse : This were my guerdon : to fade utterly Into the rose heart of that sanguine vase , And lose my purpose in its silent sea , And lose my life , and find my life , and pass Up to the sea that is as molten glass .” One more quotation we will give from the song of Parthenope in “ The Argonauts ." O mortal , sad is love ! But my dominion Extends beyond…
1907 · PDF PAGE 44
…y Jesus Wept " is the more characteristic of the two , and certainly the most iconoclastic of any . In “ Orpheus , " Books I and II , we find a poetic regularity almost strictly adhered to , not so , how ever , in Book III , and in “ The Argonauts .” But it is not till we get to “ Rodin in Rime ” that we find practically every sonnet and quatorzain possessing some infringement of the orthodox rules of poetry ; yet it cannot be said that these poems , chiefly in iambic verse broken by the occasional introduction of another foot , usually an anap…
1907 · PDF PAGE 33
…d in the above poems express the maximum amount of horror in the one case , and of desire in the other . Very different from Blake do we find such a poem as “ Vespers ,” which , though differing in rime , in cadence and spirit , is reminiscent of Rossetti's “ Blessed Damozel " : Still in those avenues of light, No maid , with golden zone , And lily garment that from sight Half hides the ivory throne , Lay in my arms the livelong night To call my soul her own . ? Whilst parts of the poem “ Messaline " with which “ Alice ” opens remind us of poor…
1907 · PDF PAGE 45
…pondee ; “ pity , ” a trochee . The whole metre breaks up , as if the singer's heart burst in despair . Whilst in “ Bouches d'Enfer ” we find such lines as : From the long -held leash ! The headlong , hot -mouthed girl, in which , as we read , we feel a veritable stretching of the mental leather , as it were ; our minds being held back a space by the introduction of the word “ long .' This quatorzain ends : Of smouldering infamy. Bow down in awe ! It is enough . The Gods are at feast . Withdraw ! 22 Again the same mental stress . All the above …
1907 · PDF PAGE 260
THE NEW WINE 253 » 2 the Hermetic maxim , “ That which is above is as that which is below ,” we find stated in “ The Philo sopher's Progress ": That which is highest as the deep Is fixed , the depth as that above : Death's face is as the face of Sleep ; And Lust is likest Love . ? In “ The Quest ” and in several parts of “ Tann häuser , ” we are conveyed into the maze of mystic numbers , which we do not intend to enter here . “ My womb is pregnant with mad moons and suns , and yet we ultimately feel, on reading deep into these mystical poems , …
1907 · PDF PAGE 79
…est possible morality , based on Nature , and manifested to us through our divine powers of reason . And much of this new morality do we find in the love-gospel of Aleister Crowley . First turning to the love incarnate in motherhood , we find a touching case in the picture of Cora in “ The Mother's Tragedy." Cora Vavasour , late of the halls , yet as true and noble a woman as ever lived , a type of woman that , thank Heaven , is not so uncommon among those whom the prudes call fallen classes . Cora was scarcely , however , one of these ; living…
1907 · PDF PAGE 312
…tate of pseudo -Samadhi . To make me as one dead : To loose the girders of the soul , and gain Breathing and life for the Intelligible ; Find death , yet find it living.'1 In the midst of my complicated hallucination , I could perceive I had a dual existence . One portion of me was whirled unresistingly along the track of this tremendous experience , and the other sat looking down from a height upon its double , observing reassuring , and serenely weigh ing all the phenomena .? 3 Probably Samadhi itself acts somewhat like this . But hasheesh pr…
1907 · PDF PAGE 42
…eardsley , especially , suc ceeded Rossetti just as Crowley is now superseding Swinburne . A poetic iconoclast to the very backbone , we find Crowley , especially in his later works , break ing away from every poetic convention and restraint . At first it makes itself apparent in “ The Star and the Garter ,” which was unwound from that same tangled skein from out of which Browning had ravelled “ Fifine," and then , in the full power of manhood , in “ Why Jesus Wept ” ; which one day will find its historic niche in the temple of Poetry , somewhe…
1907 · PDF PAGE 164
…rowsy sleepers of the night , and wash from their gluey eyes the nightmare of Christian Supremacy . In the earlier poems of Crowley , we find not only a reverential handling of the Christ idea , but an almost orthodox adoration for the Christ Himself . In the last two verses of “ Aceldama " this is strongly brought out . “ Thy love will stand while ocean winds en dure "; and again , “ Here I abandon all myself to thee .” ? In “ Songs of the Spirit ” we find this venera tion acutely portrayed , and the Christ as depicted in “ The Goad ” closely …
1907 · PDF PAGE 41
… but a kind of poetic prose as found in the Prophetic Books of Blake , and in the works of Walt Whitman . Yet in Blake , I think , we do find many consistent irregularities , which have been entirely misunderstood by many of his editors and critics . However , it was not till Swinburne loomed athwart the conscious regularity of the Tenny sonian era , a poetic pre - Raphaelite , that , strictly speaking , a conscious and musical irregularity became admissible , wedging its way in , and splitting up the metrical structure of perfect scansion . In…
1907 · PDF PAGE 108
… my guerdon : to fade utterly Into the rose -heart of that sanguine vase, And lose my purpose in its silent sea , And lose my life , and find my life , and pass Up to the sea that is as molten glass .? Nirvana . The drowning of self in eternity . Yet if the mind returned not from its abode , and ever rested with God , all would run smoothly enough ; but such a possibility is too transcendental to be actual . If it were , hen this dull house of gold and iron and clay Is happy also — ' tis an easy way !? But this cannot be . The dice are in God's…
1907 · PDF PAGE 72
THE VIRGIN 65 the many a heinous offence , reflecting a light that they cannot find in their gloomy atmosphere . Laws are the concrete opinions of the many , morals the abstract sensations of the few . Outside ourselves ethics do not exist, for they are the great faculty of sentient existence . The law of the survival of the fittest is not moral , it is essential ; but , manifested through reason it becomes ethical . As regards the aspirations of the sexes , nature cares little whether John loves Ann or Mary . Man , however , cares much . John …
1907 · PDF PAGE 76
…ying sensualism, has filled All human life with hydra -headed woes. So sang Shelley . Now let us turn to Aleister Crowley , and we shall find his ideal no less great , noble and true than that of Shelley's , the divinest of the poets and pioneers of Truth , Freedom , and Beauty . Love is the finding in others what others cannot find in them , and it is of two degrees . The love of a mother towards her child ; and the love of man and “ large as this total may appear , it is not improbable that it is below the reality than above it. One thing is …
1907 · PDF PAGE 261
… Avesta ; in the Avalôkitêsvara , or Kwan - Yin , the Sakti of Amitâbha , the boundless light of the later Mahayana Buddhists . Again we find it in the conception of Prana or life spirit of ancient India ; the Atharva -veda says : “ Rever ence to Prana , to whom the universe is subject , who has been lord of all , on whom all is supported .” Prana is the Purusha or aum , the totality of Brahman , Vishnu , and Siva , of Past , Present , and Future . The Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs , and the later Book of Wisdom ; it is also the same power as …