The Star in the West

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 .