The Star in the West

26 THE STAR IN THE WEST Both poets have chosen here not the only word that could be chosen , but the only word that would in the above poems express the maximum amount of horror in the one case , and of desire in the other . Very different from Blake do we find such a poem as “ Vespers ,” which , though differing in rime , in cadence and spirit , is reminiscent of Rossetti's “ Blessed Damozel " : Still in those avenues of light, No maid , with golden zone , And lily garment that from sight Half hides the ivory throne , Lay in my arms the livelong night To call my soul her own . ? Whilst parts of the poem “ Messaline " with which “ Alice ” opens remind us of poor " Jenny." Tennyson , if we are to judge from the introduction to “ Alice , " does not seem to hold a very high posi tion in the opinion of Aleister Crowley . “ He is a neu rasthenic counter - jumper ” certainly would not have pleased Poe , who regarded him as the noblest poet that ever lived . Nevertheless we find traces of the great laureate's work in these poems , such as the idea contained in the following verse of “ De Profundis ”: I have dreamed life a circle or a line , Called God, and Fate , and Chance , and Man, divine . I know not all I say , but through it all Mark the dim hint of ultimate sunshine !? which is almost identical with that in Canto LIV of “ In Memoriam .” A poem written in the metre of Tenny Songs of the Spirit , vol . i, p . 53 . 2 Mysteries : Lyrical and Dramatic , vol . i, p . 113 .