Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
… gloom, Are thy birth-dower. Another prostitute Predestined, born man, damned to grow a brute ! Another travels tainted to the tomb ! My sin, my madness, in thy blood are set, A vile imperishable coronet, To hound thee into hell ! God spits at thee The curse thy parents earned. Revenge be thine ! Kiss Lust, kill Truth, and worship at Sin’s shrine. And foul His face with dung—thy infamy !
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 89 Sheds a loose hint of subtle sin such as the queen Faustina had. Thou drawest me. Thy golden lips are carven Cleo- patra-wise Large, full, and moist, within them lies the silver rampart, whence there slips That rosy flame of love, the fount of blood at my light bidding spilt ; And my desires, if aught thou wilt, are with thy mind, and thy account With God shall bear my name the more ; give me the knowledge, me the power For some new sin one little hour, and bankrupt God the creditor : Steal from his stock of suffering ; his t…
ODE TO VENUS CALLIPYGE 63 CHORUS Daughter of Lust by the foam of the sea ! Mother of flame ! Sister of shame ! Tiger the Sin nor her son cannot tame ! Worship to thee ! Glory to thee ! Venus Callipyge, mother of me.
52 YET TIME TO TURN O little root of nobleness left thus Dead, since it has no power to grow, to bloom ; Live, since I may not bury it within The gaping tomb Where virtue lies, that I, imperious, Long since interred with hope, and all life’s joy save sin.
… But within Where we two cling together, and hot kisses Stray to and fro amid the wildernesses Of swart curled locks ! I deem it a sweet sin, So sweet that fires of hell have no more power On body and soul to quench the lustrous flame Of that desire that burns between us twain. What is Eternity, seeing we hold this hour For all the lusts and luxuries of shame ? Heaven is well lost for this surpassing gain.
…hold The vapourous vomit of your stench Wrung from foul souls, no longer bold But cowed and cold. “ Vipers ! his folly I will heal, Your sin I will not put away ; My Christ is vain for you ; appeal In vain to his shed blood ; nor pray I will not slay. “ I will most utterly destroy Your souls from off the earth ; your power Sealed by your Satan I will cloy With subtle strength ; your church shall flower No further hour. “ Because ye set your hands to this, Blaspheming nature and my name,
…rial-bands. The silent troops recede ; within the fiery circle of their glance Warm writhing woman-horses dance a shameless Bacchanal of sin ; Foam whips their reeking lips, and still the flower- witch nestles to my lips, Twines her swart lissome legs and hips, half serpent and half devil, till My whole life seems to lie in her ; her kisses draw my breath ; my face Loses its lustre in the grace of her quick bosom ; sinister The raving spectres reel ; I see beyond my Circe’s eyes no shape Save vague cloud-measures that escape the dances whirling…
…n damnation from thy tawny breast. Nor heed the haggards sun’s eclipse, feeling thy perfume fill my hair, And all thy dark caresses wear sin’s raiment on thy melting lips— Nay, by the witchcraft of thy charms to sleep, nor drain that God survive ; To wake, this only to contrive—fresh passions in thy naked arms ; And, at that moment when thy breath mixes with mine, like wine, to call Each memory, one merged into all, to kiss, to sleep, to mate with death !
…n flame Into all Time to abundant fame ? CHORUS Daughter of Lust by the foam of the sea ! Mother of flame ! Sister of shame ! Tiger that Sin nor her son cannot tame ! Worship to thee ! Glory to thee ! Venus Callipyge, mother of me. Fruitless foam of a sterile sea, Wanton waves of a vain desire, Maddening billows flecked with fire, Storms that lash on the brine, and flee, Dead delights, insatiate ire Broke like a flower to the birth of thee, Venus Callipgye, mother of me !
…then there grew A giant lust, strong as the sea ; And we with fresh delight assayed The fierce sweet bond of tribady, The strange strong sin of sodomy,
…pirit of Love is upon us, A crucified Christ ! O rapture ! O glory ! O gladness ! When Satan is fled from the land, When Christ cleanses sin, and from madness Deletes its indelible brand ; For life shall spring where they have smitten, And Love rise from under the rod, Till all men behold what is written, The kingdom of God !
88 THE BLOOD-LOTUS To lure a soul to hell, to draw some saint’s charred lust, to tempt, to win Another sacrifice to sin, another poet’s heart to gnaw With dubious remorse. Oh ! flame of torturing flower- love ! sacrament Of Satan, triple element of mystery and love and shame, Green, gold, and crimson, in my heart you strive with Jesus for its realm, While Sorrow’s tears would overwhelm the warriors of either part ! Jesus would lure me : from his side the gleaming torrent of the spear Withdraws, my soul with joy and fear waits for sweet blood to…
…us o’er Time’s empurpled steep. She loved me then ; she loves me now, afar. Ah, she knew not ! and I, so steeped and stained With fierce sins, knew myself unworthy of The heart I gained, And, a lost mariner whose polar star He is ashamed to look to, cast away her love. I would not have her love a thing so vile, I would not link her life with such as mine ! O cursed sin, to leave my soul too high To cheat the shrine ! I drave Love forth, Love lingered yet awhile So that I might not quite win Hell before I die.
…ves of hell or heaven, supremely wed, Knit in one soul in one delicious bed More hot than hell, more wicked than all things, Vast in our sin, whose unredeeming wings Rise o’er the world, and flap for lust of death, Eager as anyone that travaileth ; So in our lusts, the monstrous burden borne Heavy within the womb, we wait the morn Of its fulfilment. Thus eternity Wheels vain wings round us, who may never die, But cling as hard as serpent’s wedlock is, One writhing glory, an immortal kiss.
… was committed to an asylum, for there could be no longer any doubt of his complete insanity ; for three weeks he had been raving with absinthe, and satyriasis. He survived his confinement no long time ; the burning of the asylum with its inmates was one of the most terrible events of the war of 1870. So died one of the most talented Englishmen of his century, a man who for wide knowledge of men and things was truly to be envied, yet one who sold his birthright for a mess of beastlier pottage than ever Esau guzzled, who sold soul and body to Sa…
…f his sensibility to physical charms. Pure and sane is his early work ; then he is carried into the outer current of the great vortex of Sin, and whirls lazily through the sleepy waters of mere sensualism ; the pace quickens, he grows fierce in the mysteries of Sapphism and the cult of Venus Aversa with women ; later of the same forms of vice with men, all mingled with wild talk of religious dogma and a general exaltation of Priapism at the expense, in particular, of Christianity, in which religion, however, he is undoubtedly a believer till th…