THE LOOKING -GLASS
23
Yet
the
little thing who
“
stinks and
stings ” was
not satisfied, the second metaphor actually weakened
the effect of the first , etc. , etc.
With such have poets
to contend , but I do not think such homunculi worry
Aleister Crowley much . His poetry is his own , and he
gives it us as it is written without
respect
of persons
or opinions , for his masters have been the greatest of
our race .
In these
poems we find
a certain
preponderance
of Swinburne , Blake , Browning
, Keats , Shelley , and
Rossetti .
In the dedication to “ Jephthah ,” which
is
addressed to Algernon
Charles
Swinburne , we
read
the following :
As streams get water of the sun -smit sea ,
Seeking my ocean and my sun in thee . 1
And
this discipleship
to the greatest and last of the
Victorian
poets
has
given
us
many
a
subtle
and
enthralling
line .
The
scene
when
Charicles
wakes
and catches Archais
to his breast is worthy
of the
bard who sang
of
“
Tristram
and
Iseult.”
It is as
follows :
He sprang , he caught her to his breast ; the maid
Smiled and lay back to look at him .
He laid
Her tender body on the sloping field ,
And felt her sighs in his embraces yield
A sweeter music
than all birds .
But she ,
Lost in the love she might not know , may see
No further than his face, and yet, aware
Of her own fate , resisted like a snare
Her own soft wishes .
As she looked and saw
His eager face, the iron rod of law
Grew like a misty pillar in the sky .
In all her veins the blood's desires die,
2 Jephthah , vol. i, p. 66.