Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1903 · PDF PAGE 104

Alice: An Adultery

AT LAST O tearless sorrow of long years, depart ! O joy of minutes that be ages long, Come ! Let the choral pulse and strength of song Quicken, and the fire of lute and lyre dart, An arrow red with blood and bright with art, And cover all the fiery bloom of wrong With blossoms blacker where the blood runs strong As our lips pale, their life fled to the heart. Surely we are as dead, we loving so, So bitterly, so keenly : let no breath Persuade us we are living and must die ! Better believe eternal kisses flow Under the strong rude current miscal…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 41

Alice: An Adultery

…’s justice, and replaced, By Law most bountiful and maiden-faced And mother-minded : passing the low bound Of man’s poor law we leapt at last and found Passion ; and passing the dim halls disgraced Found higher love and larger and more chaste, A calm sphinx waiting in secluded ground. Hear the sad rhyme of how love turned to lust, And lust invigorated love, and love Shone brighter for the stain it rose above, Gathering roses from the quickening dust ; And faith despoiled and desecrated trust Wore pearlier plumes of a diviner dove. 21

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1903 · PDF PAGE 63

Alice: An Adultery

…s wave retire. Not so : this trial was the tiniest Man ever knew, confronted afterward With giant fears and passions ;—long to fight And last to yield a Maenad-swelling breast Unto a furious Dionysian horde Drunk not with wine, but with avenging night. 43

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1903 · PDF PAGE 115

Alice: An Adultery

…e you, and shall love you till it die.’ Whether next year, as fondly we made oath Shall see us meet at least, whether as wife I shall at last gather the whole vow’s breath— Not heaven nor hell shall break our solemn troth. love you, and shall love you all my life. I love you, and shall love you after death. 95

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1903 · PDF PAGE 42

Alice: An Adultery

…jesty Of a mild soul unstirred by rivalry Of any life beyond its own sweet state. I looked around me, wondered whether Fate Had found at last a woman’s love for me. I had no hope : she was so grave and calm, So shining with the dew-light of her soul, So beautiful beyond a woman’s share. Yet—here ! Soft airs, and perfume through the palm, And moonlight in the groves of spice, control The life that would not love and yet be fair. 22

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1903 · PDF PAGE 68

Alice: An Adultery

THE SEVENTEENTH DAY “ Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant.” Tempest. Last night—but the boy shrieked in’s sleep—then, there I had ended all ! Having ingressed the track That leads from green or white-crowned hours to black, The pleasant portals of the scorpion snare, First gleaming toils of an enchantress’ hair That afterward shall change their fervours slack To strong gripe of a devil-fish : go back ? The hand is put forth to the plough—beware ! I took my shrine down : at the night we lay Four hours debating between fear and sin : Wh…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 81

Alice: An Adultery

…e love’s gold and steel, The sharpness inlaid with sweet tracery Of talismans of virtue : she is leal To come and live and be my love at last. 61

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1903 · PDF PAGE 110

Alice: An Adultery

…ld’s sad sympathy with Persephone. Yet I myself, while tuning to her key My sighs of sorrow, mused in secret mirth : “ I am convinced at last of money’s worth, For lack of which she cannot cross the sea.” I told her, like a fool, a day too soon. She went and told her story to the priest ; She wept, and borrowed money of the beast. She told me she would go : June fell from June. I, left in limbo ; she, to front the elate Cockoldy lawyer in the L . . . S . . . S . . . 90

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1903 · PDF PAGE 54

Alice: An Adultery

…use And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook The dedicated words which writers use Of their fair subjects.” The Sonnets. I learnt at last some sort of confidence, Called me the fool I was, knowing my skill Proven of old, all women’s native will To do all things soever that lack sense, Especially if evil : thoughts immense Like this I thought : plumes of my amorous quill I tickled her withal : then grave and still Waited secure : the silence grew intense. She read—and saw me but a beardless boy, Too young to fear, too gentle not to pity, Not…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 112

Alice: An Adultery

…tide Swore to seek me and gather one by one The threads of labyrinthine love new spun, Cretan for monstrous shadows serpent-eyed. So the last kiss passed like a poison-pain, Knowing we might not ever kiss again. Mad tears fell fast : “ Next year ! ” in cruel distress We sobbed, and stretched our arms out, and despaired, And—parted. Out the brute-side of truth flared ; “ Thank God I’ve finished with that foolishness ! ” 92

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1903 · PDF PAGE 13

Alice: An Adultery

…een a philosopher of the widest and deepest learning and penetration, and a regret that he showed no more of it in his poetry. First and last, I stood amazed, stupefied : so stand I still. Dramatic propriety forbade me seeing him again ; he was alone when he started. Let us not too bitterly lament ! He would hate him who would “ upon the rack of this tough world stretch him out longer.” x

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1903 · PDF PAGE 8

Alice: An Adultery

… This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be Good, great, and joyous, beautiful, and free : This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.” The last phrase pealed trumpet-wise : he sank back into thought. “ Yes,” he said slowly, “ neither to change, nor falter, nor repent.” I moved forward, and he saw me. “ Who are you ?” he asked. “ I am travelling in the East,” I said. “ I love Man also ; I have come to see you. Who are you ?” He laughed pleasantly. “ I am the child of many prayers.” There was a pause. I stood still, thinking. Here was surely the ve…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 14

Alice: An Adultery

…d his meaning in almost every case. But in the sonnets of the 12th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 29th, 35th, 41st, 43rd and 48th days, also in “ At Last,” “ Love and Fear,” and “ Lethe,” one or more whole lines have been almost im- possible to read. The literary student will be able readily to detect my patchwork emendations. These I have dared to make because his whole pattern (may I use the word ?) is so elaborate and perfect that I fear to annoy the reader by leaving any blanks, feeling that my own poverty of diction will be less noticeable than any ac…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 21

Alice: An Adultery

…erence to his art alone. But if our Editor’s conjecture as to the real cause of his death is right, the fire he played with burnt him at last, and he died of the love he had invoked in play. It is the old-story of the magician strangled by the devil. As to what became of Alice we have no idea, if, indeed, she be after all a real person. In my judgment our poet was perfectly capable of deify- ing an old woman of fifty with a false front and *The results of a lengthy correspondence with some who knew our author, go far to confirm this theory. Yet…

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