44
THE STAR IN THE WEST
find it in the rapture of Love , the melody of Song , or
the fire of Deity , it is what Poe meant
by “ elevating
excitement ,” and as we
have
seen , it was because
of
its absence
that he attacked the Epic school of verse .
Ecstasy
lies beyond our gnosis ; as we shall here
after
see , it carries us out of ourselves , beyond
the
mere
shell of existence , into
the very depths of the
profound .
For
the
fraction
of
a
second
the
whole
ocean of our being is whirled through a narrow gorge ,
then
once again we are hurled forth into the eddying
cataracts of life, an essential spirit light gilding
once
again the sepulchral abode of a corpse . For a moment
we behold God , face
to face , but for a moment only ,
then
all
again
is
night
.
Keats
attained
,
and
so
did
Shelley
and Browning
.
Read
the
last verses
of
the
“
Prometheus
Unbound
”
and
“
A
Grammarian's
Funeral
,
”
and
all
will
be
plain
;'
and
it
is
this
same
ecstasy that burns white
in
these two superb
poems
,
which flames
a
bright star
of
beauty guiding
us
on
our
long
journey
across
the
hundred thousand
leagues
of
the empire
of
Crowley's
pen
.
We find
it
shining
brightly over almost every
page
,
a
fact which renders
the task
of
quoting
nigh
endless
.
Already
we have
cited
a
dozen
or
more examples
.
Volume
I
flames
like
a
subtly gemmed ring with the ecstasy
of
many
moments
,
and many
of
the following
citations
in
this
essay will
be
both brilliant
and flashing
;
and
as
are
the sides
of
the Heptagonal Vault
,
so
also will
be
the
contents
of
these
seven
chapters
.
But
here
at
least
we shall alone content ourselves with
quoting
from
one
poem—
“
Orpheus
,"
and
then
only
loose from
the massive setting
a
few
of
its
flashing stones
.
In
Book
I
the invocation
of
Venus
is
very fine
.
The
third verse being
: