THE
LOOKING -GLASS
25
Rejects the poison of the blood of God .
To tread base thoughts as our high thoughts have trod ,
Deep in the dust , the carrion that was God ; '
remind us strongly
of such pieces
as
“Before
a Cru
cifix ,”
whilst
others
take
us
into
the
mystic
and
simple land of Blake , such
as
the
duet of Charicles
and Archais
:
Hush ! the music swells apace ,
Rolls
its
silver billows up
Through
the void demesne
of
space
To the heavens
'
azure cup
!
Hush
,
my love
,
and sleep shall sigh
This
is
immortality
!?
Other
lines again
hold
us
enthralled with
the extra
ordinary
power
they
contain
,
expressed
in
a
single
word
.
Thus
in
the poem
"
The
Lesbian
Hell
,”
we
find ourselves
in
the unutterable void
of
Orcus
,
where
kisses
are
flung
in
vain
,
and where around
us
pale
women fleet
:
Whose empty fruitlessness assails the night
With hollow repercussion
,
like dim tombs
Wherein
some vampire glooms
.3
This
last
line
is
one
of
the
most
expressive
ever
written
by
Crowley
,
and
in
the last word
"
glooms
"
is
concentrated
more than terror
or
fear
,
a
brooding
unnameable horror
,
comparable
to
the word
"
crowd
"
that Blake makes use
of
in
his
“
Mad Song
”:
Like
a
fiend
in
a
cloud
With howling woe
After night
I
do crowd
And with night will go
.
1
Mysteries
:
Lyrical
and Dramatic
,
vol
.
i,
pp
.
106
,
107
.
2
The Tale
of
Archais
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
27
.
3
The Temple
of
the Holy Ghost
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
185
.