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JEZEBEL 9 To thy white skull, thy palms, thy feet, Clinging, dead, infamous, complete. Now let me die, to mix my soul With thy red soul, to join our hands, To weld us in one perfect whole, To link us with desirous bands. Now let me die, to mate in hell With thee, O harlot Jezebel.
JEZEBEL AND OTHER TRAGIC POEMS
Jezebel and other Tragic Poems By Count Vladimir Svareff Edited, with an Introduction and Epilogue, by Aleister Crowley London Privately printed at the Chiswick Press 1898
JEZEBEL 5 Her lips are fastened to my breast To suck out blood in feverish tides ; The token of her I possessed, Still on my withered cheek abides. Thus slowly the desire grows To kill and have her yetwho knows ?
…of dead, I smote amain with sword and shield ; My brows with mingled blood were red ; And on my cheek the kiss of hell, The hatred of my Jezebel. I waited many days. At last The rushing of a chariot grew Frightful through all the city vast : Men were afraid. But II knew Jehu was here, whose sword should dip Deep in my loves adulterous lip. The spirit filled me. And behold ! I saw her dead stare to the skies. I came to her ; she was not cold, But burning with old infamies. On her incestuous mouth I fell, And lost my soul for Jezebel. I followe…
4 JEZEBEL And on my haggard face upturned She spat ! Ah God ! how my cheek burned ! Then, as a man betrayed, and doomed Already, I arose and went, And wrestled with myself, consumed With passion for that sacrament Of shame. From the day unto this My cheek desires that hideous kiss. Her hate, her scorn, her cruel blows, Fill my whole life, consume my breath ; Her red-fanged hatred in me glows, I lust for her, and hell, and death. I see that ghastly look, and yearn Toward the brands of her that burn. Sleep shuns me ; dreams divide the night, (My …
JEZEBEL 7 Throw down that woman ! And my breath Caught as they flung her out to death. I think I died that moment. He, Foaming for vengeance and blood-lust, Laughed his coarse laugh of hideous glee. Her sweet bad body in the dust He trampled. Royal from the womb A martyred murderess lacks a tomb ! A tigress woman, clad with sin, And shod with infamy, who pressed The bloody winepress of my skin, And plucked the purple of my breast Her lovers in their hearts shall keep Her memory passionate and deep. They cast her forth on Naboths field Sti…
JEZEBEL 3 Ah God ! the traps for fervent feet ! The morrow beaconed, and I came By where the golden groves of wheat In summer glories fiercely flame ; To those white courts, by princes trod, Where Ahab sat, and mocked at God. Where Ahab sat :but lo ! I saw No king, no tyrant to be curst ; But she, who filled me with blind awe, She, for whose blood my thin veins thirst ; The blossom of a painted mouth And bare breasts tinctured with the south. For lo ! the harlot Jezebel ! Her hands dropped perfume, and her tongue (A flame from the dark heart o…
12 JEZEBEL Take me, or break me, slay or sooth to sleep, If only yours one hour, one perfect hour, Remembrance and despair and hope to steep In the infernal potion of that flower, My poisonous passion for your blood ! Behold ! How utterly I yield, how gladly dower Our sin with my own spirits quenched gold, Clothe Love with my own souls immortal power, Give thee my body as a fire to hold O love, no words, no songsyour breast my bower !
16 JEZEBEL Fire righteous ! Thou a righteous man ! A jest ! A righteous manyou always loved me best, And even when lured by lips of wanton girls Would turn away and sigh and touch my curls And slip half-conscious to the old embrace : And now you will not let me see your face Or hear your voice or touch you. Ah ! the hour ! He moves. Come back, come back, my lifes one flower ! Come back. One kiss before your leave me. So ! Stopturnone little kiss before you go ; It is my rightyou must. Oh no ! Oh no !
JEZEBEL 17 EPILOGUE. TO die amid the blossoms of the frost On far fair heights ; to sleep the quiet sleep Of dead men underneath the snowy steep Of many mountains ; ever to have lost These cares and these distrusts ; to lie alone, Watched by the distant eagles drowsy wing, Stars and grey summits, and the winds that sing Slow dirges in eternal monotone. Such is my souls desire, being weary of This vain eternity of sleepless dreams That is my life ; withal there still may be In other worlds, the hope of other love Than this that floods my veins…
10 JEZEBEL CONCERNING CERTAIN SINS. SOME sins assume a garb so fine and white That the blue veil of Heaven seems to shade Their purity. They are winged so wide and bright That even angels pinions seem to fade, And the archangels wing recedes in night : Ay ! even God seems perturbed and afraid Because it wears so holy a garb of light Of perfumed fire immaculately made. These sins are deadly. God is merciless For Love that joins Mans passion with His power, And makes to bloom on earth a fairer flower Than heaven bears. Our token of success Is…
JEZEBEL. PART I. A LIONS mane, a leopards skin Across my dusty shoulders thrown ; A swart fierce face, with eyes where sin Lurks like a serpent by a stone. A man driven forth by lust to seek Rest from himself on Carmels peak. A prophet with wild hair behind, Streaming in fiery clusters ! Yea, Tangled with vehemence of the wind, And knotted with the tears that slay ; And all my face parched up and dried, And all my body crucified. Ofttimes the Spirit of the Lord Descends and floods me with his breath ; My words are fashioned as a sword, My vo…
JEZEBEL 11 A SAINTS DAMNATION. YOU buy my spirit with those peerless eyes That burn my soul ; you loose the torrent stream Of my desire ; you make my lips your prize, And on them burns the whole lifes hope : you deem You buy a heart ; but I am well aware How my damnation dwells in that supreme Passion to feed upon your shoulders bare, And pass the dewy twilight of our sin In the intolerable flames of hair That clothe my body from your head ; you win The devils bargain ; I am yours to kill, Yours, for one kiss ; my spirit for your skin ! O bi…
8 JEZEBEL Her murders and her blasphemies, Her whoredoms, God has paid at last ; Upon my bosom close she lies ; Her carnal spirit holds me fast. My blood, my infamy, my pain, Seal my subjection and her reign. My veins poured out her marriage cup, For holy water her cruel tongue ; For blessing of white hands raised up, These perfumed infamies unsung ; For Gods breath, her sharp tainted breath ; For marriage bed, the bed of death. The hounds that scavenge, fierce and lean, Snarl in the moonlight ; in the sky The vulture hangs, a ghost unclean ; …
2 JEZEBEL My body towards the city turns, My spirit seeks its fierier goal ; In wells of heaven to quench my thirst, And take Gods hand among the first. I conquered self ; I grew at last A prophet chosen of the Lord ; I blew the trumpets iron blast That called on Zimri Omris sword ; My voice inflamed the fiery steel That was to smite upon Jezreel. And now, I haste from yonder sands, With fervour filled, to say Gods doom To Ahab of the bloody hands, The spoiler of his fathers tomb, The slayer of the vineyard king. Gods judgment, and his fa…
JEZEBEL 13 LOT. And while he lingered ... they brought him forth, and set him without the city. GEN. xix. 16. TURN back from safety : in my love abide, Whose lips are warm as when, a virgin bride, I clung to thee ashamed and very glad, Whose breasts are lordlier for the pain they had, Whose arms cleave closer than thy spouses own, Thy spouseO lover, kiss me, and atone ! All my veins bleed for love, my ripe breasts beat And lay their bleeding blossoms at thy feet ! Spurn me no more ! O bid these strangers go ; Turn to my lips till their cu…
14 JEZEBEL Burnt in that shameful whirlwind of his ire, Consumed in one tall pyramid of fire Whose bowers of flame shall tell the sky of God How we despised his feet with thunder shod, And conquered, clasping, all the host of death. Turn to me, touch me, mix thy very breath With mine to mingle floods of fiery dew With flames of purple, like the sea shot through With golden glances of a fiercer star. Turn to me, bend above me, you may char These olive shoulders with an old-time kiss, And fix thy mouth upon me for such bliss Of sudden rage rekind…
JEZEBEL 15 Must root from out his bosom the fair flower Of passion ! Listen to thine own voice yet ; A rich man many flocks and herds did get And took the poor mans lamb. Thou art the man ! Our love must lie beneath thy bitter ban ! Thou petty, envious God ! My king, be sure His brute force shall not to the end endure ; Some stronger soul than thine shall wrest his crown And thrust him from his own high heaven down To some obscure forgetful hell. For me Forsake thy hopes in him ! We worship, we, Rather the dear delights we know and hold ; T…