The Star in the West

FOREWORD IN N “ Frazer's Magazine ” of November, 1866 , may be found the following : “ Wherever there is any kind of true genius , we have no right to drive it mad by ridicule or invective ; we must deal with it wisely, justly , fairly . Some of these passages which have been selected as evidence of (the poet's ) plain speaking, have been wantonly misunderstood . The volume , as a whole , is neither profane nor indecent . A little more clothing in our uncertain climate might perhaps have been attended with advantage . To us this volume , for the first time , conclusively settles that Mr. is not a mere brilliant rhetorician or melodious twanger of another man's lyre , but authentically a poet ." So writes the critic . The name I have omitted is that of the last of the great Victorian poets , Algernon Charles Swinburne . In the dying glory of this last great singer of the nineteenth century , the deepening twilight shows but few rising stars ; alone perhaps amid the younger generation of poets - alas , how many and yet how few --- Aleister Crowley stands forth with no little of the glory of the great Victorian cast o'er him ; enhancing our pleasures , and enchanting our senses . The Sun kisses the Moon , and through the diaphanous veil of the vestal is seen the subtle