Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1899 · PDF PAGE 31

Tale of Archais

…ught Him, and the world began, He made moist clay, and breathed on it, that man Might be most frail and feeble, and like earth Shrink at Death’s finger from the hour of birth ; And like the sea by limits of pale sand Be utterly confined ; but so He planned To vivify the body with the soul, That fire and air were wedded to control The heavy bulk beneath them, so His breath Touched the warm clay and violated death, Gave to the spirit wings and bade it rise To seek its Maker with aspiring eyes, Gave to the body strength to hold awhile The spirit, …

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1899 · PDF PAGE 13

Tale of Archais

…ose holy incense up to Heaven shall ascend And the souls that stand and shiver On the borders of the River, Shall their arms extend Unto Death as to a lover, knowing Death is not the End.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 78

Tale of Archais

…ious spurting flame Grown sad with shame, Whose imminent desire Drinks in the dew of earth, Gives its own limpid streams to quench man’s deathly dearth. O gardened rose ! The fern-fronds gird thy fragrant beauty round. Thy ways are bound With petals that unclose When the sun seeks his way Through night and sleep and love to all the dreams of day. Love, sleep, and death ! The three that melt together, mingle so Man may not know The little change of breath (Caught sigh that love desires,) When love grows sleep, and sleep at last in death expires.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 79

Tale of Archais

…mortal love, the garland of the spheres, Than those sweet tears That yield no bitterness To the luxurious cries That love shrills out in death, that murmur when love dies. Love dies in vain. For breezes hasten from the summer south To touch his mouth And bid him rise again, Till, ere the dawn-star’s breath, Love kisses into sleep, Sleep swoons away to Death. So Zeus in her sweet arms slept daintily Till the sun crept into the midmost sky, And his own curse came back to sleep with him.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 29

Tale of Archais

… in roses ; while his heart and mind Broken and yet imperishable, blind, Hateful, desire they know not what, and turn Lastly to pray for death ; his wild eyes burn, And bitter tears divide his doubtful breath. So grew his anguish to accomplish death, Had not the goddess with the rosy shoon Stooped o’er the silver surface of the moon To touch his brow with slumber, like a kiss Whose dreams perfused the name of Archais, Till the sweet odour dulled his brain, and sleep Loosened his limbs, most dreamless and most deep. The mosses serve him for a be…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 58

Tale of Archais

…he Gold of Your Forehead ! And bring me with you to the swarthy south ! And bury me in your desire’s bed ! Mine you shall be in life, in death, in dream, Mine in the years that are, and those that seem ; One with my essence, as your lips absorb My breath, and make it breezes for your bed, And all my body, to fill full the orb Of golden splendour of your royal head. King of my life and crown of my desire, King of all death when life’s last lips expire ; Mine, in the straitest wedlock rightly wed, Till God be pleased to kindle us a pyre.

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1899 · PDF PAGE 51

Tale of Archais

…m back. The land, Where rest is made eternal, slipped his clutch ; He wandered through the world and might not touch The sceptre of King Death. In vain he sought Those fierce embraces, nor availed him aught To numb the aching of his breast. The maid He loved, now freed from doom, no longer prayed

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1899 · PDF PAGE 43

Tale of Archais

…, Trees that re-weave their branches lovingly, Birds that pass passionate on pinions fleet : Such quiet joys my eyes in slumber see— Let death’s keen sickle wander through the wheat ! I love not life o’ermuch ; since loving thee My dreams are sweet. Sing, little bird, it is dawn ; Chant, with the day the woods ring ; Now in the blush of the morn Sing ! Love doth enchain me and cling, Love, of the breeze that is born, Love, with the breeze that takes wing,

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1899 · PDF PAGE 28

Tale of Archais

…f perfect pleasure From a perfect chalice poured, Swells the veins with such a measure As the garden’s lord Makes his votaries dance to, death Draws with soft delicious breath To the maiden and the man. Love and life are both a span. Ere the crimson lips have planted Paler roses, warmer grapes, Ere the maiden breasts have panted, And the sunny shapes Flit around to bless the hour, Comes men know not what false flower : Ere the cup is drained, the wine Grows unsweet, that was divine. All the subtle airs are proven False at dewfall, at the dawn S…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 72

Tale of Archais

…ea Where her eyes dwell, bids them glint amorously, While the intense hushed music of his breath Sighs, till her longing grows divine as death— So, fairer far, drew dawn on Ida’s grove. The young sun rose, whose burning lips of love Kissed the green steeps, whose beamy locks of flame Brushed o’er the dewy pastures, with acclaim Of tuneful thrushes shrill with mountain song, And noise of nightingales, and murmur long— A sigh half-sad, as if remembering earth And all the massy pillars of her girth ; Half-jubilant, as if foreseeing a world Fresher…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 27

Tale of Archais

…ruck through him, till his tortured mind Drove his young limbs, the wolf that hunts the hind, Far through the forest. Lastly sleep, like death, With strong compulsion of his labouring breath Came on him dreamless. When he woke, the day Stooped toward the splendour of the western bay, And he remembered. Like a wild bird’s cry The song within him flamed, a melody Dreadful and beautiful. The sad sea heard And echoed over earth its bitter word. SONG Ere the grape of joy is golden With the summer and the sun, Ere the maidens unbeholden Gather one by…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 57

Tale of Archais

…That pierce her bosom, like dividing swords, With hopes and loves re-quickened, and her breath Grew calm as worship’s, though as dark as death Her soul had been for weary days no few ; Now, lightened by the spirit thrust anew As into a dead body breath of life, She gave sweet thanks with gentle lips that ope, Like buds of roses on the sunny slope Of lily gardens falling toward a stream That flashes back the intolerable beam Of sunlight with light heart. They fled away At Cypris’ word, beyond the bounds of day Into the awful caverns of the night…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 35

Tale of Archais

… Where the grim fiend grinds down with fiery stones The unrepentant marrow of men’s bones, Or chills their blood with poisonous vials of death, Or dooms them to the tooth and venomous breath Of foul black worms ; and on the earth to dwell For a long space, and there (most terrible !) To change her shape at times, and on her take The fierce presentment of a loathly snake

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1899 · PDF PAGE 66

Tale of Archais

… landing-stage, Yet brimstone joined in wedlock with foul age To burn into its vitals ; thus the breath Of Satyrs wantoning at noon with Death Strained it, and all but cast it loose ; the night Drew on the outer world ; no change of light Was known within those depths, but vermin knew By some strange instinct ; forth the unholy crew Of vampires and swamp-adders drew them out. Alone amid the pestilential rout Charicles’ crest did glimmer red with wrath, And, stealing from the barge, he drew him forth And writhed into the hut, for latterly So dar…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 37

Tale of Archais

…ithing with pure shame, the long grass whirrs With her sharp flight of fury and despair. Then Charicles at last became aware Of the fell death that had him by the throat To mar his music ; like one blind he smote The quivering air with cries of sorrow ; then, Disdaining fear and sorrow, cried to men And gods to help him ; then, resolved to dare All wrath and justice, he rose up to swear ; Lifting his right hand to the sky, that glowed Deadly vermilion, like the poisonous toad That darts an angry red from out its eye, By sword and spear, by maze…

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1899 · PDF PAGE 73

Tale of Archais

…n her confines a delicious rose Lying asleep, a-dreaming, white of brow, Stainless and splendid. Yea, and fair enow To tempt the lips of Death to kiss her eyes And bid her waken in the sad surprise Of seeing round her the iron gates of hell In gloomy strength : so sweet, so terrible, So fair, her image in the brook might make A passionless old god his hunger slake By plunging in the waters, though he knew His drowning body drowned her image too. Yet she seemed gentle. Never thorn assailed The tender finger that would touch, nor failed The stron…

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