Clouds Without Water

TI, #1, AIH. 9. TV. 7. VI. 8. Vil. iX, Blind worms — pious swine. — The poor servants of God! Ah, well! we have our com- fort in Him; like Our Blessed Lord, we can forgive. It is for our loving Lord to set His foot upon the necks of our enemies, and to cast them out into the blackness of darkness for ever. This is quite unintelligible to me. I think this is what is called Echolalia, a sure sign of ‘degeneracy’; or, as I prefer to think, a wickedness which has gone, dreadful as it sounds to write, beyond the Infinite Mercy of God. “ I will send them strong delusicn, ” Oriflamme. — How obscene is all this sym- bolism! THE HERMIT Myrrh — musk. — The perfumes of Sorrow and of Lust. Many prostitutes scent themselves strongly with musk, the better to allure their unhappy victims. Maid. — Proserpine, or Hecate. I think the latter, as Proserpine became wife of Hades. This disgusting sonnet seems to refer to the wicked magical practice of travelling by the astral double. Cannabis. — Indian hemp, a drug producing maniacal intoxication. ALY, X, 12. XE, 7. 13. 14. [V. 14. AIV. XI, 6, Verlaine! Zola! — These are the vampires that suck out the virtue from our young people, the foreign corrupters of our purer manners! Attis—Abelard.— Thirst’ here clearly means unhallowed lust, since Attis and Abelard were both mutilated persons. What mad megalomania ! THE THAUMATURGE Horrible blasphemy of this adaptation of Job to their vile purposes! Ten bob. — Vulgarity must always go with wickedness, Christ is not only a saving but a refining influence. Wolf’s tail. — The Zodiacal Light, seen before dawn. I suppose that such a mixture of ribaldry, blasphemy, vulgarity, and obscenity, as this series of sonnets has never been known. But worse is to follow! THE BLACK MASS A reference to the Bacchae of Euripides,