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Page 1 of 21910 · PDF PAGE 102
THE RED STAR. 49 IST NYMPH Name the sharp accursed shape, Stigma of its prodigy ! 2ND NYMPH Is it but a whirling storm ? ALEXANDER Nay ! the star is cruciform. IST NYMPH Thus the holy cross is cloven From Pan’s purpose purple-woven. Even for centuries nine and ten, Life of women — death of men ! In that sinister sad star Men shall bear the upright bar, Hanged for honesty and truth, Wisdom, courage, love, or youth. Women bear the cross-bar, living In the filth beyond believing. Svelte or buxom, fair or dark, Go to the maw of the greedy shark
1910 · PDF PAGE 110
THE RED STAR. 57 Conquering, penetrating, crushing — All the seeds of darkness in me Splashed with fire and water, So that spring arises in me Like a warrior weary of slaughter Striding to the striped lair Of deftly-woven camel’s hair, Where the trembling captive-woman Waits his pleasure-hour inhuman ! All the roots of love and power Flushed at last into a flower. All the films of sense dissolved ; All the spirit sight evolved, So that after myriad aeons Filled with trumpet-pealing paeans, With the nuptial bliss of man Prostituted unto Pan, Ris…
1910 · PDF PAGE 139
86 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. The purport of the star we saw enshrined In the eclipse — to say so — of the sky. I feared her perfidy ; The journey might prove tedious — (nay, my lords ! Star or no star, I am honoured, glad, to find Such royal mates !). But her, I had her stripped And most magnificently whipped By two tall slaves (a Tartar and a Goth) Till all the flesh was ripped From her olive back — she looked like a dead camel When a man frightens off the kites ; And her rich blood came all afroth To her lips’ vermeil enamel — The lips that I had …
1910 · PDF PAGE 86
I THE RED STAR
1910 · PDF PAGE 100
THE RED STAR. 47 ALEXANDER He was softer than a dove ; He was made for human love. I have given him for food To the lusty panic rood, And the obscure brotherhood. IST NYMPH So the doves of men begotten Shall be plucked, and bruised, and rotten. 2ND NYMPH So shall full-fed brothel-knaves Kick them to indecent graves In the name of the sweet Dove That is God — for God is Love. ALEXANDER See ye naught but cruelty In the infinite To-Be ? Look you, I have seen a star Threatening pestilence or war In the vault that hangs — a splash Like a scar.
1910 · PDF PAGE 90
THE RED STAR. 37 I came from very far Led by that strange red star At noon that fadeth now Dim on the snow-crowned brow Of royal Caucasus, A mystical portent Of some obscure event Darkly miraculous Written below the West In Fate’s dark palimpsest ; Obscure — the sun to eclipse ! I fed my flaming lips Upon the limbs of slaves, Great Nubian girls that bled Upon the sands — so laves The sun his fire in cloud When the sea glows glassy red At the buffet of the wind On its cheek all wrinkle-lined. Ah ! thou Lord God ! thus thrice I made thy sacrifice…
1910 · PDF PAGE 104
THE RED STAR. 51 Of lust and ugliness and gold, The rank goats of the whorish mire. So falls their flame to that decayed Glow of wet rot in the wintry wood. Ay ! from this star disaster-rayed A very wormwood draught is brewed : The light of life shall shrink dismayed At the dawn of prostitute and prude ; And the pagan glory fade From the brows of womanhood. IST SATYR But the boy shall thrust the maid From the sunlight to the shade. He shall make her passion good. 2ND SATYR Nay ! for all the world-decay Rots from sapphirine to grey. All the lepr…
1910 · PDF PAGE 108
THE RED STAR. 55 Each in its emerald pavilion Like the death-god’s majesty Burning his ensanguine pain In my blood, my heart, my brain. Yea ! with the scent of myrrh And musk, and oliban, and strange perfumes Begotten in pre-natal glooms When all was — what ? with infinite ambergris The excellent kiss Of Pan enshrouds me and invades. See how the night-borne shades Darken the grove ! There is no moon to-night The foul red star blots out the stars. So, Pan, thy love That brooks not any light Shall brand its shameful scars Even on this flesh — thi…
1910 · PDF PAGE 70
THE GARDEN OF EROS. I7 Where past the star points the pole Rest the unstirred axis of the soul. CHRYSIPPUS Hear then ! By Abrasax ! the bar Of the unshifting star Is broken — Io ! Asar ! My spirit is wrapt in the wind of light ; It is whirled away on the wings of night, Sable-plumed are the wonderful wings, But the silver of moonlight subtly springs Into the feathers that flash with the pace Of our flight to the violate bounds of space. Time is dropt like a stone from the stars : Space is a chaos of broken bars : Being is merged in a furious fl…
1910 · PDF PAGE 94
THE RED STAR. 4I Of sun and rain. Arise ! The red gleam in thine eyes ! Up, up and slay ! 2ND SATYR Fair child, Laugh thou ; God honours thee (Look ! then, methinks, he smiled !) To condescend to bless That unripe loveliness. The acid of thine immaturity Shall be a sharpness in his mouth Cloyed with too clinging sweet Of the full-bosomed South. IST SATYR Beside those rose-fair feet Dimpled with fairy kisses There’s no bright-tinted bird In all the blue abysses Worth even a plumeless word. THE CHILD I do not like this place.
1910 · PDF PAGE 80
THE GARDEN OF EROS. 27 THE DOVE Would you lend me your red star ? THE VULTURE With the greatest pleasure, pigeon ! THE DOVE I’ll be off, then. THE LAMB So will I. THE VULTURE I shall know where I can find you. THE LAMB Would you had a moment’s patience ! I had a much better scheme — One involving pigeon-pie ! THE VULTURE Butch ! be off with you. I’ll hop Up again to the tree-top. Yaugh Waugh ! That’s me ! Always at the top of the tree ! (They depart separately, yet together. The old Philosopher wakes).
1910 · PDF PAGE 144
…e or death. Now ! — — Stretch ! — Plague on the wretch ! Friends, ease me — with a scimitar ! ALEXANDER We learnt not that from the dark Star. MIRIAM Why then, be cursed ! My belly is about to burst. The hag and the baboon come forward. THE HAG Ho ! we will lift the prudish latch. Dear apeling, hold the torches while I catch This monster. So. Dispatch ! MIRIAM God ! let it be a boy. I would enjoy His love. Who hath come forth with such keen pain Owes keener pleasure, going back again. A curse upon that Dove.
1910 · PDF PAGE 122
…. PUBLIUS Let it crow for her ! One by one they defile her. MIRIAM Scarce forty ! Yet the dawn begins to stir : The Wolf’s tail blots my star. At last I strain Some strength that strains my body back again. THE CENTURION Enough, lads ! If she breed not, at my peril I shall uphold it “ Jewish girls are sterile. ”
1910 · PDF PAGE 98
THE RED STAR. 45 IST SATYR O the rich red blood that swims on Over all the malachite ! 2ND SATYR Ah ! the banquet gold and crimson Like the sun afeast at night ! ALEXANDER Out of the fume of the blood arise Two lithe nymphs with amethyst eyes, Sparkling with the wanton pleasure That their small and laughing scarlet Mouths betrayed, as overmeasure Bubbled out the dancing harlot Music of them, snaky slim, Panther-smooth and light of limb Wreathed with wealth of mystic berry, As they leap, divinely drunken On the very blood that gat them, Insolent…
1910 · PDF PAGE 131
…h Riding in her golden car Yoked to ox and ass that prance In their evil Hinnom-dance ! I am writhing with my death Born of the infernal Star. ALEXANDER Nay, our lady, we are come To thy worship — high and holy ; From our heaven-wide halidom To the manger dark and lowly We have brought taraxacum, Mandrake, amrit, myrrh and moly ; Many a royal gift of gree From the land of Danae, From the coral-breeding sea, From the steppes of Tartary ! GOVINDA I have brought a treasure-chest Full of gold, red gold galore,
1910 · PDF PAGE 141
…h purple tail-feathers Wherein pale flames of gold mingled and shook. Here, too, my wisest ministers Gathered to solve the riddle of the Star. But so the balky brute Crushed in this gnarled fist Maintained the unequal war That at the dagger-sweep Strongly she leapt — I missed !
1910 · PDF PAGE 96
THE RED STAR. 43 And thou, his languid lover, Sank back into the arms of Zeus With thine head hanging loose, And the long curls adrip With the dew oozing from his lip. ALEXANDER So ! unto Thee ! Come hither, Child ! You must pass before Unto the land where all flowers wither And the sea hath never a shore. 2ND SATYR Ha ! he hath dashed the babe to die, And caught his first convulsive sigh. With a fierce kiss biting into his lips, As a storm-fiend tears the reeling ships. His fingers clutch the golden hair. The head goes back, and the neck is ba…
1910 · PDF PAGE 92
THE RED STAR. 39 Steady I stare Into Thine eyes luxorious glare Swimming with lust — as if I were Some wandering Arab chief enthralled By a sphinx with eyes of emerald, As a bird fixed by an hissing asp, As a maiden in a giant’s grasp, As a mariner caught in the viewless iron And velvet vice of a singing siren ! I lift this blade to sheer In one deliberate sweep Of startling light All that man holdeth dear. From the sun’s high steep to the great deep Of unimaginable night To dive — I dive. Lord, now ! Pan ! Pan ! Accept the supreme vow ! The ma…
1910 · PDF PAGE 89
…ust To involve in a curse The insane dust Of the universe ? Speak, o my Lord ! I have journeyed afar In the wake of the terrible crimson star. A harp between mine hands, Murmurous and musical, I come from far-off lands To seek Thee who are All. Amid my warrior bands I rode in kingly wise : Thy light upon mine eyes !
1910 · PDF PAGE 170
…and is a black rod clothed with twin glittering snakes, the royal Uraeus serpents of ancient Khem ; at its point gleams faint and blue A star of six rays, whose light now illumines the pale and tortured features of a man, with outstret- ched arms, who is hanging (apparently) in space. It is Issa, but the weariness is gone ; and noble-strong is the scarred brow of his agony. ALEXANDER. In the puissance of my will, Issa, I uphold thee still. ISSA. Thou art ? ALEXANDER Keeper of the Way.