The Star in the West

38 THE STAR IN THE WEST Pitiful love . Lovelier pity , descend And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn ." ? Here “ piti " is a trochee ; “ lovelier, " a spondee ; “ pity , ” a trochee . The whole metre breaks up , as if the singer's heart burst in despair . Whilst in “ Bouches d'Enfer ” we find such lines as : From the long -held leash ! The headlong , hot -mouthed girl, in which , as we read , we feel a veritable stretching of the mental leather , as it were ; our minds being held back a space by the introduction of the word “ long .' This quatorzain ends : Of smouldering infamy. Bow down in awe ! It is enough . The Gods are at feast . Withdraw ! 22 Again the same mental stress . All the above are contrary to the rules of scansion , yet nevertheless they are musical . And though in “ Rodin in Rime ” perhaps Crowley slightly overdoes this introduction of irregular lines , yet they add a great charm , as they do in many of his other poems , producing in their lingering pause or quick jump an ecstatic spasm , if we may so call it , which renders so many of these poems unique . Such as in “ Styx ” we find : 1 W. E. Henley , Rodin in Rime , vol . iii, p . 120. Compare the following verse in Swinburne's poem , The Centenary of the Battle of the Nile : The strong and sunbright lie whose name was France Arose against the sun of truth , whose glance Laughed large from the eyes of England fierce as fire Whence eyes wax blind that gaze in truth askance . 2 Rodin in Rime , vol . iii, p . 119 . 3 Ibid .