Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1903 · PDF PAGE 30

The Star and the Garter

…hat clear evidence of France, The embroidered garter yonder. Wait! I had some confidence in fate Ere I spoke thus. For while I spoke The old smile, surely helpless, broke On your tired lips: the old light woke In your deep eyes: but silence falls Black, blank : the species that appals, Not our old silence. I devise A motto for your miseries : “There an embroidered garter lies, And here words—they lie too?” I see Your intuition of the truth Is still in its—most charming—youth. You need that physiology! 28

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1903 · PDF PAGE 22

The Star and the Garter

…aughters echoing you From reverend shades of bard’s renown :— Nature alive and glad to hymn Your beauty, my delight : her God Weary, his old eyes sad and dim In his intolerable abode. 20

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1903 · PDF PAGE 57

The Star and the Garter

Back from my lips, back from my breast! I hold you as I always will, You unprofaned and uncaressed, Silent, majestical, and still. Back! for I love you. Even yet Do you not see my deepest fire Burn through the veils and coverings set By fatuous phantoms of desire? Back! O I love you evermore. But, be our bed the bridal sky ! I love you, love you. Hither, shore Of far unstained eternity ! There we will rest. Beware! Beware! For I am young, and you are fair. Nay! Iam old in this, you know! Ah! heart of God! I love you so! 55

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1903 · PDF PAGE 17

The Star and the Garter

VI Trutn, like old Gaul, is split in three. A lesson in anatomy, A sketch of sociology, A tale of love to end. But see! What stirs the electric flame of eyes? One word—that word. Be destiny’s Inviolate fiat rolled athwart The clouds and cobwebs of our speech, And image, integrate of thought, This ebony anthem, each to each :-— To lie, invulnerable, alone, Valkyrie and hero, in the zone, Shielded by lightnings of our wit, Guarded by fires of intellect Far on the mountain-top, elect Of all the hills divinely lit By rays of moonrise! O the moon! O…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 44

The Star and the Garter

…m and the blizzard! The ancient and devoted dizzard! Appear, thou dream of loveliness! She wore a rose and amber dress, With broidery of old gold. Her hair Was long and starry, gilded red. Her face was laughter, shapen fair By the sweet things she thought and said. Her whiteness rustled as she walked. Her hair sang tunes across the air. She sighed, laughed, whispered, never talked. She smiled, and loves devout and rare Flickered about the room. She stayed Still in the dusk : her body sang Out full and clear “‘O love me!” Rang The silver couplet…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 66

The Star and the Garter

XXIX So, love, not thus for you and me! And if I am man, no more, expect I shall remain so, till, maybe, The anatomist, old Time, dissect Me, nerve from flesh, and bone from bone, And raise me spiritual, changed In all but love for you, my own; The little matter rearranged, The little mind refigured. This Alone I hope or think to keep :— The love I bear you, and the kiss Too soft to call the breath of sleep. And, if you are woman, even there I do decline : we stand above. I ask not, and will take no share With you in what mankind call love. We …

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1903 · PDF PAGE 34

The Star and the Garter

…hat I am.” Perpend! (Hark back to Hamlet!) If You stand thus poised upon the cliff Freewill—I await that will; (One) laughter; (Two) the old kiss ; (Three) silence after. No? Then vacate the laboratory! Psychology must crown the event, And sociology content, Ethics suffice, the simple story! (Oh! that a woman ever went Through course of science, full and whole, Without the loss of beauty’s scent, And grace, and subtlety of soul. Ah God! this Law maketh hearts ache, “Who eateth shall not have his cake.”) 32

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1903 · PDF PAGE 45

The Star and the Garter

Glittered enamelled sorceries. She was a piece of jewel work Sold by a Christian to a Turk. She had fed on air that day : the flowers About her curled, ambrosial bowers Of some divine perfume : the soul Of ether made her wise ; control Of strong distilled delight. She showered Wit and soft laughter and desire About her breasts in bliss embowered, And subtle and devouring fire Leapt in live sparks about her limbs. Her spirit shields me, and bedims My sight: she needs me: I need her. She is mine: she calls me: sob and stir Strange pulses of old p…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 67

The Star and the Garter

…perate and strange surmise About the inmost heart of things. This is all strange : but is not life, Death, all, most strange, not to be told, Not to be understood by strife Of brain, nor bought for gleaming gold, Nor known by aught but love? And love Far from resolving soul to sense, Stands isolated and above Immaculate, alone, intense, Concentrate on itself. But should The lesser leave me, as it might ; The lesser never touch you; would Your will be one with my delight? Leave all the thoughts and miseries ! Invade the glowing fields of sun! Cr…

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1903 · PDF PAGE 20

The Star and the Garter

…Till bosoms heave, and eyes outflash, And it is good to be alive. He shall ride off at dawn, and we Shall look upon our life again ; You old, and all your beauty be Broken, and mine a broken brain. Yet we shall know ; delighting still In the sole laughter death derides In vain; the indomitable will, Still burning in the spirit, guides Our hearts to truth ; we see, we know How foolish were the things he said, And answer in the afterglow How good it is that we are dead. Will you not come? Or, where the surf Beats on the coral, and the palm 18

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