The Star in the West

THE LOOKING -GLASS 29 The work is finished , and the Night rolled back ! I am the rising Sun of Life and Light , The Glory of the Shining of the Dawn ! I am Osiris ! I the Lord of Life Triumphant over death O Sorrow , Sorrow , Sorrow of the World ! 1 That such similarities as we have pointed out above show Aleister Crowley to be a copyist , must be far from the minds of all his readers . Youth most certainly tends towards certain ideals , and frequently results in a definite hero - worship ; but genius cannot be bound for long ; it will eventually find its own level . The mere fact that certain forms of thought and modes of ex pression occur here as they have occurred elsewhere , should be as a literary barometer , enabling us to judge the mental standard of the writer . All great writers will have many points in common . It is more than probable that Aleister Crowley had already read most of Shakespeare before he wrote “ The Mother's Tra gedy ,” and yet , because of this we should not neces sarily say that the following magnificent lines were due to the influence of the great master , notwith standing the fact that they are in many respects equal to much of his best : Your breath , that burns upon me , wraps me round With whirling passion , pierces through my veins With its unhallowed fire , constrains , compels , Drags out the corpse of twenty years ago From the untrusty coffin of my mind , To poison , to corrupt , to strike you there Blind with its horror ." Many other pieces are almost equally grand , the last speech of Tannhäuser to Heinrich is truly magnificent : » 2 | Tannhäuser , vol . i, p . 261 . 2 The Mother's Tragedy , vol . i, p . 160 .