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
.