FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
22 matching pages
Page 1 of 21905 · PDF PAGE 51
46 THE BLOOD-LOTUS Their song is in my ears, that burn with their melodious wickedness ; But in her heart my sorceress has songs more sinful, that I learn As she sings slowly all their shame, and makes me tingle with delight At new debaucheries, whose might rekindles blood and bone to flame. The circle gathers. Negresses howl in the naked dance, and wheel On poinard-blades of poisoned steel, and weep out blood in agonies ; Strange beast and reptile writhe ; the song grows high and melancholy now ; The perfume savours every brow with lust unutte…
1905 · PDF PAGE 48
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 43 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 pour its tide Of warm delight—in vain ! so cold, so watery, so slack it flows, It leaves me moveless as a rose, albeit her flakes are manifold. He hath no scent to drive men mad ; no mystic fragrance from his skin Sheds a loose hint of subtle sin such as the queen Faustina had. Thou drawest me. Thy golden lips are carven Cleopatra wise. Large, full, and moist, within them lies the silver rampart,…
1905 · PDF PAGE 101
…g forth the Virgin Dower, Eternal Wisdom and Eternal Power ! I woke ! and in a well’s untroubled pool I saw my face—and I was ugly now ! Blood-spattered ebony eyelash and white brow ! Blood on my lips, and hair, and breast ! “ Thou fool ! ” A horrid torture in my heart—and then I licked my lips : the tigress tasted blood. My changèd features—wash them in the flood Of murder ! This is power over men And angels. I will lift the twisted rod, And make my power as the power of God ! I made my beauty as it was before. I learned strange secrets ; by m…
1905 · PDF PAGE 38
… shame Thrust in it ; so, we who are all fire, One dull red flare of devilish desire, The God of Israel shall not quench with tears, Nor blood of martyrs drawn from myriad spheres, Nor watery blood of Christ ; that blood shall boil With all the fury of our hellish toil ; His veins shall dry with heat ; his bones shall bleach Cold and detested, picked of dogs, on each Dry separate dunghill of burnt Golgotha. But we will wrest from heaven a little star, The Star of Bethlehem, a lying light Fit for our candle, and by devils’ might Fix in the vast …
1905 · PDF PAGE 46
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 4I They murder with the old perfume that maddens all men’s blood ; we die Fresh from some corpse-clothed memory, some secret redolence of gloom, Some darkling murmurous song of lust quite strange to man and beast and bird, Silent in power, not overheard by any snake that eats the dust. No crimson-hooded viper knows ; no silver-crested asp has guessed The strange soft secrets of my breast ; no leprous cobra shall disclose The many-seated, multiform, divine, essential joys that these Dank odours bring, that starry seas wash white …
1905 · PDF PAGE 52
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 47 Which we indwell, a deathless three, changeless and changing, as the pyre Of earthly love becomes a fire to heat us through eternity. I have forgotten Christ at last ; he may look back, grown amorous, And call across the gulf to us, and signal kisses through the vast : We shall disdain, clasp faster yet, and mock his newer pangs, and call With stars and voices musical, jeers his touched heart shall not forget. I would have pitied him. This flower spits blood upon him ; so must I Cast ashes through the misty sky to mock his fa…
1905 · PDF PAGE 47
42 THE BLOOD-LOTUS Why art thou paler when the moon grows loftier in the troublous sky ? Why dost thou beat and heave when I press lips of fire, hell’s princeliest boon, To thy mad petals, green and gold like angels’ wings, when as a flood God’s essence fills them, and the blood throughout their web grows icy cold ? To thy red centre are my eyes held fast and fervent, as at night Some sad miasma lends a light of strange and silent blasphemies To lure a soul to hell, to draw some saint’s charred lust, to tempt, to win Another sacrifice to sin, a…
1905 · PDF PAGE 61
…lasphemous music lulleth him to sleep. II Tears of the martyrs, and saints torturèd, Must prove intoxicating symphonies, Since, spite of blood-price paid to gain them ease, The heavens therewith are not yet satiated. III Jesus ! recall Gethsemane afresh, Where thy simplicity his pity sought Who in his heaven heard, and mocked for nought, Coarse hangmen pierce with nails thy living flesh. IV When on thy godhead spat the virulence Of scum of soldiery and kitchen-knaves ; When thou didst feel the thorns pierce bloody graves Within thy brain where …
1905 · PDF PAGE 63
58 TRANSLATIONS FROM BAUDELAIRE THE FOUNT OF BLOOD SOMETIMES I think my blood in waves appears, Springs as a fount with music in its tears ; I hear it trickling with long murmuring sound, But search myself in vain to find the wound. Across the city, as in closèd meres, Making the pavements isles, it disappears ; In it all creatures’ thirst relief hath found ; All nature in its scarlet hue is drowned. I have often prayed these fickle wines to weep For one day Lethe on my threatening fear— Wine makes the ear more sharp, the eye more clear. I have…
1905 · PDF PAGE 53
48 THE BLOOD-LOTUS Nor heed the haggard 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 dream 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 !
1905 · PDF PAGE 4
…DS OF BRETHREN I8 ODE TO SAPPHO 2 I IN A LESBIAN MEADOW 23 “ ’ TIS PITY ” 26 MY WIFE DIES 28 ALL NIGHT 3 I ODE TO VENUS CALLIPYGE 35 THE BLOOD-LOTUS 40 TRANSLATIONS FROM BAUDELAIRE 49 INVOCATION 6 I A LITANY 69 CALL OF THE SYLPHS 72 CHALDEAN FOOLS 73 HERMIT’S HYMN TO SOLITUDE 74 THE STORM 79 HYMN TO APOLLO 83 vii
1905 · PDF PAGE 164
… oracle as the Delphian stone’s ! So thou to me : best lover of . . . Thou who art love and pity and clean art, Wearing a rosebud on thy blood-bright heart, A lily on thy brows ; I comprehend Thy mystic utterance : read its rune aright : For . . . , love ; for Aleister, delight. * So the schoolboy : Nemo sapit omnibus horis—no one is safe in an omnibus with ladies. 159
1905 · PDF PAGE 45
THE BLOOD-LOTUS THE ashen sky, too sick for sleep, makes my face grey ; my senses swoon. Here, in the glamour of the moon, will not some pitying godhead weep For cold grey anguish of her eyes, that look to God, and look in vain, For death, the anodyne of pain, for sleep, earth’s trivial paradise ? Sleep I forget. Her silky breath no longer fans my ears ; I dream I float on some forgotten stream that hath a savour still of death, A sweet warm smell of hidden flowers whose heavy petals kiss the sun, Fierce tropic poisons every one that fume and s…
1905 · PDF PAGE 49
44 THE BLOOD-LOTUS So in some damned abyss of woe thy chant should dazzle as of old, Thy kisses burn like molten gold, thy visions swing me to and fro. Strange fascinations whirl and wind about my spirit lying coils ; Thy charm enticeth, for the spoils of victory, all an evil mind. Thy perfume doth confound my thought, new longings echo, and I crave Doubtful liaisons with the grave and loves of Parthia for sport. I think perhaps no longer yet, but dream and lust for stranger things Than ever sucked the lips of kings, or fed the tears of Mahomet…
1905 · PDF PAGE 50
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 45 Grotesque and hairy, in their rage more rampant than the stallion steed ; There is no help : their horrid need on these pale women they assuage. Wan breasts too pendulous, thin hands waving so aimlessly, they breathe Faint sickly kisses, and inweave my head in quiet burial- 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, …
1905 · PDF PAGE 185
… specimen of our poet’s verse and sentiments:— ‘ Exalted over earth, from hell arisen, There sits a woman, ruddy with the flame Of men’s blood spilt, and her uncleanly shame, And the thrice-venemous vomit of her prison. She sits as one long dead ; infernal calm, Chill hatred, wrap her in their disdainly cold. She careth not, but doth disdainly hold Three scourges for man’s soul, that know no balm. They know not any cure. The first is Life, A well of poison. Sowing dust and dung Over men’s hearts, the second scourge, above All evil deeds, is Lyi…
1905 · PDF PAGE 58
…s, To succour feverish shriekings of fierce flame, O Bacchus, soother of men’s ancient pains. Others, whose throat is thirsty for breast-blood, To hide a whip ’neath flowing robes are fain, Mingling in lonely night and darksome wood The foam of pleasure and the tears of pain. O virgins, demons, monsters, O martyrs ! Great souls contemptuous of reality ! Seekers for the Infinite, satyrs, worshippers, Now mad with cries, now torn with agony ! You whom my soul has followed to your hell, Poor sisters, more beloved than wept by me, For your fierce w…
1905 · PDF PAGE 36
…up of death To drain its sweetest poison. Scarce a sigh Beats the dead hours out ; scarce a melody Of measured pulses quickened with the blood Of that desire which pours its deadly flood Through soul and shaken body ; scarce a thought, But sense through spirit most divinely wrought To perfect feeling ; only through the lips Electric ardour kindles, flashes, slips Through all the circle to her lips again, And thence, unwavering, flies to mine, to drain All pleasure in one draught. No whispered sigh ; No change of breast ; love’s posture perfectl…
1905 · PDF PAGE 43
…ystery, barren, who bearest Flowers of most comeliest children, who wearest Wounds for delight, whose desire shall stain Star-space with blood as the price thou sharest Sweet with thy lovers, whose passing pain Ripens to marvellous after-gain. Thou art the fair, the wise, the divine ! Thou art our mother, our goddess, our life ! Thou art our passion, our sorrow, our strife ! Thou, on whose forehead no lights ever shine, Thou, our redeemer, our mistress, our wife, Thou, barren sister of deathlier brine, Venus Callipyge, mother of mine !
1905 · PDF PAGE 120
…al stood And—what had brushed me as it passed ? What froze My dream to this awakening—fearful flood Of horror loosed, loosing a sweat of blood, An agony of terror on these brows ? God ! God ! Indeed, indeed this is the house ! The candles sputtered and went out. I stood Fettered by fear, and heard the lonely wind Lament across the marsh. A frenzied flood Of hate and loathing swept across my mood, And with a shudder I flung the door to. Mind And body sank a huddled wreck behind. Nought stirred. Draws hither the grim doom of Fate ? A long, long, …