Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1912 · PDF PAGE 94

Sir Palamedes

…en Of that lone land where Druids dwell. There came an eagle from the height And bade him mount. From dale to dell They sank and soared. Last to the light Of the great sun himself they flew, Piercing the borders of the night, Passing the irremeable blue. Far into space beyond the stars At last they came. And there he knew All the blind reasonable bars Broken, and all the emotions stilled, And all the stains and all the scars Left him; so like a child he thrilled With utmost knowledge; all his soul, With perfect sense and sight fulfilled,

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1912 · PDF PAGE 68

Sir Palamedes

62 The knight at last wins to behold The full conception. Breathless-blue The fair lake’s mirror crystal-cold Wherein he gazes, keen to view The vast Design therein, to chase The Beast to his last avenue. Then—O thou gosling scant of grace! The dream breaks, and Sir Palamede Wakes to the glass of his fool’s face! “ Ah, ’sdeath!” (quod he), “by thought and deed This brute for ever mocketh me. The lance is made a broken reed, The brain is but a barren tree— For all the beautiful Design Is but mine own geometry!” With that his wrath brake out like…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 72

Sir Palamedes

…ow, they multiply; The strong knight’s brain goes all a-swim, Paced by that maddening minstrelsy, Those dog-like demons hunting him. The last bar breaks; the steel will snaps ; The black hordes riot in his brain ; A thousand threatening thunder-claps Smite him—insane—insane—insane |! His muscles roar with senseless rage; The pale knight staggers, deathly sick; Reels to the light that sorry sage, Sir Palamede the Lunatick.

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1912 · PDF PAGE 57

Sir Palamedes

He strains and strives in very deed, So that at last a boulder trips The hero, that he bursts a-bleed, And sanguine from his bearded lips The torrent of his being breaks. The Beast is gone: the hero slips Down to the valley: he forsakes The fond idea (every bone In all his body burns and aches) By speed to attain the dear Unknown, By force to achieve the great Beyond. Yet from that brain may spring full-grown Another folly just as fond. 51

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1912 · PDF PAGE 63

Sir Palamedes

…swarms of these A-questing over all the plain. The good knight reins his charger in. “ Now, by the faith of Paladin! The subtle quest at last I ken.” Rides off to Camelot to plight The faith of many a noble knight, Sir Palamede the Saracen. 57

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1912 · PDF PAGE 28

Sir Palamedes

…s : behold How breath must fail and muscle ache Before he reach the icy fold That Palamede the Saracen Within its hermitage may hold. At last he cometh to a den Perched high upon the savage scaur, Remote from every haunt of men, From every haunt of life afar. There doth he find Sir Palamede Sitting as steadfast as a star. Scarcely he knew the knight indeed, For he was compassed in a beard White as the streams of snow that feed The lake of Gods and men revered That sitteth upon Caucasus. So muttered he a darkling weird,

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1912 · PDF PAGE 41

Sir Palamedes

…The noise he hath sought so long: appears There quest a thirty couple hounds Within its belly as it bounds. Lifting his eyes, he sees at last The beast he seeks: ’tis like an hart. Ever it courseth far and fast. Sir Palamede is sore aghast, 35

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1912 · PDF PAGE 95

Sir Palamedes

…scended, All power in his sublime control, All felt, all thought, all comprehended— “ How is it, then, the quest ” (he saith) “Ts not—at last |!—achieved and ended? Why taste I not the Bounteous Breath, Receive the Goodly Gift of Grace? Now, kind king-eagle (by God’s death !), Restore me to mine ancient place! I am advantaged nothing then!” Then swooped he from the Byss of Space, And set the knight amid the fen. “God!” quoth Sir Palamede, “that I Who have won nine should fail at ten! I set my all upon the die: There is no further trick to try. …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 14

Sir Palamedes

…The blue-veined breasts that suckled him In childhood’s sweet and solemn days. Weeping she bares the holy womb! Shrieks out the mother’s last appeal : And reads irrevocable doom In those dread eyes of ice and steel. He winds his horn: his warriors pour In thousands on the fenceless foe; The sunset stains their hideous war With crimson bars of after-glow. He winds his horn : the night-stars leap To light ; upspring the sisters seven ; While answering flames illume the deep, The blue pavilions blaze to heaven. Silent and stern the northward way T…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 18

Sir Palamedes

12 IV Now, with two score of men in life And one fair babe, Sir Palamede Resolves one last heroic strife, Attempts forlorn a desperate deed. At dead of night, a moonless night, A night of winter storm, they sail In dancing dragons to the fight With man and sea, with ghoul and gale. Whom God shall spare, ride, ride! (so springs The iron order). Let him fly On honour’s steed with honour’s wings To warn the king, lest honour die! Then to the fury of the blast Their fury adds a dreadful sting : The fatal die is surely cast. To save the king—to save…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 102

Sir Palamedes

…the Goodly Gift of Grace! There is a white cave by the sea Wherein the knight is hid away. Just ere the night falls, spieth he The sun’s last shaft flicker astray. All day is dark. There, there he mourns His wasted years, his purpose faint. A million whips, a million scorns Make the knight flinch, and stain the saint. For now! what hath he left? He feeds On limpets and wild roots. What odds? There is no need a mortal needs Who hath loosed man’s hope to grasp at God's! How his head swims! At night what stirs Above the faint wash of the tide, And…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 65

Sir Palamedes

…sh and wheel the press athrough, The weight, the murder, overwhelm One, two, and all. Nor silence knew His empire till Sir Palamede (The last) upon his fairy steed Struck down his brother; then at once Fell silence on the bloody mead, 59

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1912 · PDF PAGE 19

Sir Palamedes

…prears ! The tall towers blaze, to illume the fight; While many a myriad heathen spears March northward at the earliest light. Falls thy last comrade at thy feet, O lordly-souled Sir Palamede? Tearing the savage from his seat, He leaps upon a coal-black steed. He gallops raging through the press : The affrighted heathen fear his eye. There madness gleams, there masterless The whirling sword shrieks shrill and high, They shrink, he gallops. Closely clings The child slung at his waist; and he Heeds nought, but gallops wide, and sings Wild war-son…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 103

Sir Palamedes

…th, hath wasted youth— He was the Beast; the Beast was he! He rises from the cave of death, Runs to the sea with shining face To know at last the Bounteous Breath, To taste the Goodly Gift of Grace. Ah! Palamede, thou hast mistook! Thou art the butt of all confusion! Not to be written in my book Is this most drastic disillusion! So weak and ill was he, I doubt If he might hear the royal feast Of laughter that came rolling out Afar from that elusive Beast. G 97

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1912 · PDF PAGE 113

Sir Palamedes

Treads the impending glacier. Now, now he strikes the steep black ice That leads to the last neck. By Her That bore the Lord, by what device May he pass there? Yet still he moves, Ardent and steady, as if the price Of death were less than life approves, As if on eagles’ wings he mounted, Or as on angels’ wings—or love’s! So, all the journey he discounted, Holding the goal. Supreme he stood. Upon the summit; dreams uncounted, Worlds of sublime beatitude ! He passed beyond. The All he hath touched, And dropped to vile desuetude. What lay beyond? …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 26

Sir Palamedes

…by Goddes reed, And pulled so strong his muscle burst, His nose and mouth brake out a-bleed ; Nor moved he thus the dwarf. From first To last the envious knights essayed, And all their malice had the worst, Till strong Sir Bors his prowess played— And all his might availéd nought. Now once Sir Bors had been betrayed To Paynim ; him in traitrise caught, They bound to four strong stallion steers, To tear asunder, as they thought, The paladin of Arthur's peers. But he, a-bending, breaks the spine Of three, and on the fourth he rears His bulk, and …

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1912 · PDF PAGE 6

Sir Palamedes

…he fleeth by night. xxxvi, It hath often happened to Sir Palamede that he is haunted by a shadow, the which he may not recognise. But at last, in a sunlit wood, this is discovered to be a certain hunchback, who doubteth whether there be at all any Beast or any quest, or if the whole life of Sir Palamede be not a vain illusion. Him, without seeking to conquer with words, he slayeth incontinent. xxxvii. In a cave by the sea, feeding on limpets and roots, Sir Palamede abideth, sick unto death. Himseemeth the Beast questeth within his own bowels: h…

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1912 · PDF PAGE 5

Sir Palamedes

… the swiftness of the Beast. He therefore climbeth many mountains of the Alps. Yet can he not catch It; It outrunneth him easily, and at last, stumbling, he falleth. xix, Among the dunes of Brittany he findeth a witch dancing and conjuring, until she disappeareth in a blaze of light. He then learneth music, from a vile girl, until he is as skilful as Orpheus. In Paris he playeth in a public place. The people, at first throwing him coins, soon desert him to follow a foolish Egyptian wizard. No Beast cometh to his call. xx, He argueth out that th…

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