JEZEBEL; AND OTHER TRAGIC POEMS.

By COUNT'VLALHMIR SVAREFFF

Edited, with an Introduction and Epilogue, by ALEISTER CROWLEY. 1899.

DEDICACE. JEZEBEL LONDRES, {πίῃ 1898. PART L PEINTRE, que ton amour inspire A LION’S mane, a leopard’s skin chansons Des toujours plus sublimes, Across dusty shoulders thrown; Malgré qu’aujourd’hui ma mauvaise lyre my Chante l’abime. A swart fierce face, with eyes where sin Lurks like a serpent by a stone. A man driven forth by lust to seek Nos espoirs, nos desirs nous rendent Rest from himself Carmel’s Des amis chers aux dieux ; on peak. Demain, ma voix, plus haute et plus profonde, Chante les cieux. A prophet 1 with wild hair behind, A(3ERALD} Streaming in fiery clusters ! Yea, Tangled with vehemence of the wind, And knotted with the tears that slay ; PERDITA. And all my face parched up and dried, And all my body crucified. LIKE leaves that fall before the sullen wind At summer’s parting kiss and autumn’s Ofttimes the Spirit of the Lord call, Descends and floods with his breath ; Lost from me thoughts fly half-forgotten my words fashioned mind, My are as a sword, Like leaves that fall. My voice is like the voice of death. The thunder of the Spirit’s wings terror to the hearts of They shall not come again ; the wintry pall Brings kings. Of consciousness clouds o’er them; they shall find Anon, and I am driven out ` No rest, no hope, no tear, no funeral. In desert places by desire ; My mouth is salt and dry; I doubt Into the night, despairing, bleeding, blind, If hell hath such another fire ; know their former God’s damnation devise They pass, nor place . If can at all, A lust to match these agonies. Lost to my soul, to God, to all mankind, Like leaves that fall. 1 Not Elijah, as the sequel shows. Foolish contemporary reviews, however, made this silly 1 Gerald Kelly, the eminent painter. blunder. * Under this name the poet lay perdu in the heart of London, prosecuting, under circum- stances of romantic and savage interest, his first occult studies. VOL. I. 129 I I30 ]EZEBEL; AND OTHER TRAGIG POEMS

The desert Wind my body burns, Where Ahab sat :———but 10 ! I saw The voice of flesh consumes my soul; No king, no tyrant to be curst ; My body towards the city turns, But she, who filled me with blind awe, My spirit seeks its fierier goal ; She, for whose blood my thin veins In wells of heaven to quench my thirst, thirst; And take God’s hand among the first. The blossom of a painted mouth And bare breasts tinctured with the south. I conquered self; I grew at last A prophet chosen of the Lord ; ! I blew the trumpet’s iron blast For 10 ! the harlot Jezebel hands and her That called on Zimri Omri’s sword; Her dropped perfume, My voice inflamed the fiery steel tongue (A flame from the dark heart of hell, That was to smite upon Jezreel. The ivory-barred mouth, that stung With And now, I haste from yonder sands, unimaginable pangs) Shot out at and Hell fixed With fervour filled, to say God’s doom me, fangs. To Ahab of the bloody hands, of his The spoiler father’s tomb, Her purple robes, her royal crown, The slayer of the vineyard king. The jewelled girdle of her waist, God’s judgment, and his fate, I bring. Her feet with murder splashed, and brown With the sharp lips that fawn and taste, The city gleams afar; I see The crimson snakes that minister Samaria’s white walls on high ; To those unwearying lusts of her. The mountains echo back to me The vengeful murmur of the sky ; All heaven and earth on me attend And all her woman’s scent did drift To prophesy -the tyrant’s end. A steam Of poison through the air; The haze of sunshine seems to lift The gates are closed because of night And toil in tangles of black hair, Whose heavy breath infects the air; The hair that waves, and winds, and bites, The dog-star gleams, a devilish light : And glistens with unholy lights. I thought I saw behind me glare The eyes of fiends. I thought I heard For 10 ! she and beheld An evil laugh, a mocking word. saw me, My trembling lips curled back to curse, with whose music The swing at the Name, Laughed strong scorn, gates open knelled Without a warder roused from sleep; The empire of God’s universe. I pass, with face of burning flame, And on my haggard face upturned That is not quenched, although I weep. She spat ! Ah God ! how cheek (For even my tears are tears of fire, my burned ! For loathing, madness, and desire.)

Ah God ! the traps for fervent feet ! Then, as a man betrayed, and doomed The morrow beaconed, and I came Already, I arose and went, By where the golden groves of wheat And wrestled with myself, consumed In summer glories fiercely flame ; With passion for that sacrament To those white courts, by princes trod, Of shame. From that day unto this Where Ahab sat, and mocked at God. My cheek desires that hideous kiss. JEZEBEL I31

Her hate, her scorn, her cruel blows, I waited many days. At last Fill my whole life, consume my breath ; The rushing of a chariot grew Her red-fanged hatred in me glows, Frightful through all the city vast : I lust for her, and hell, and death. Men were afraid. But I-—I knew I see that ghastly look, and yearn ]ehu was here, whose sword should dip Toward the brands of her that burn. Deep in my love’s adulterous lip. The spirit filled me. Ami be/zola’ ! Sleep shuns me; dreams divide the night, [ saw lzer dead stare !0 lite skies. throat for her veins) 2‘0 !167” ,size was not cold ?,־ My parched thirsty ] came) That she and I with deep delight But öurm'ng' wil/z old infamz'es. Suck from death’s womb infernal pains, " On lzer incestuous mow}; ]fell, Whose fire consumes, destroys, devours A nd Zosz‘ my soulforfezebel. Through night’s insatiable hours.

_ I followed him afoot, afire; Beneath her window he drew rein ; And filled with altogether love, She looked forth, clad in glad attire, And altogether filled with sin, Haggard and hateful, once again ; The little sparks and noises move And taunted him. His bastard blood About the softness of her skin. Quailed, but his violent soul withstood. Her pleasures and her passions purr have of For the delight I her. He blenched, and then with eyes of flame, “Who is on my side? Who?” he said. Three eunuchs, passionless, grown tame, Aching with all the pangs of night Grinned from behind her laughing head. shuddering body My swoons; my eyes “ Throw down that I” And Absorb her eyelids’ lazy light, woman my breath And read her bosom to devise her death.. Fresh blossoms of the heart of hell Caught as they flung out to And of secret joys Jezebel. I think I died that moment. He, Foaming for vengeance and blood-lust, his of hideous Her lips are fastened to my breast Laughed coarse laugh glee. To suck out blood in feverish tides ; Her sweet bad body in the dust The token of her I possessed, He trampled. Royal from the womb A murderess lacks tomb ! Still on my withered cheek abides. martyred a Thus slowly the desire grows A clad with To kill and have her yet—who kn’ows? tigress woman, sin, And shod with infamy, who pressed The bloody winepress of my skin, And plucked the purple of my breast—— PART II. Her lovers in their hearts shall keep Her memory passionate and deep. I know. When Ramoth-Gilead’s field Grew bloody with hot ranks of dead, They cast her forth on Naboth’s field I smote amain with sword and shield ; 'Still living, in her harlot’s dress ; My brows with mingled blood were Her belly stript, her thighs concealed, red ; For shame’s sake and for love’s no less. And on my cheek the kiss of hell, Night falls; the gaping crowds abide The hatred of my Jezebel. No longer by her stiffening side. 132 JEZEBEL; AND OTHER TRAGIC POEMS

I crept like sleep toward the place Now let me die, at last desired, That held for me her evil head; At last beloved of thee my queen; I bent like sin above her face Now let me die, with blood attired, That dying she might kiss me dead. Thy servant naked and obscene ;` I whispered “Jezebel !” She turned, To thy white skull, thy palms, thy feet, And her deep eyes with hatred burned. Clinging, dead, infamous, complete.

“ Ah ! prophet, come to mock at me Now let me die, to mix my soul And gloat on mine exceeding pain?” With thy red soul, to join our hands, “Nay, but to give my soul to thee, To weld us in one perfect whole, And have thee spit at me again !” To link us with desirous bands. She smiled I know she “smiled—she sighed, Now ‘let me die, to mate in hell Bit my lips through, and drank, and died ! With thee, O harlot Jezebel.

Her murders and her blasphemies, Her whoredoms, God has paid at last; CONCERNING CERTAIN SINS. Upon my bosom close she lies; Her carnal spirit holds me fast. SOME sins assume a garb so fine and white My blood, my infamy, my pain, That the blue veil of Heaven seems to Seal my subjection and her reign. shade Their purity. They are winged so wide and My veins poured out her marriage cup, bright For‘holy water her cruel tongue ; That even angels’ pinions seem to fade, For blessing of white hands raised up, And the archangel’s wing recedes in night :— These perfumed infamies unsung; Ay ! even God seems perturbed and afraid For God’s breath, her sharp tainted breath ; Because it wears so holy a garb of light For marriagebed, the bed of death. Of perfumed fire immaculately made.

The hounds that scavenge, fierce and lean, These sins are deadly. God is merciless Snarl in the moonlight ; in the sky For Love that joins Man’s passion with The vulture hangs, a ghost unclean ; His power, The lewd hyaena’s sleepless eye And makes to bloom on earth afairer flower Darts through the distance ; these admit Than heaven bears. Our token of success My lordship over her—and it. Is that displeasure toWardour sin unnamed Of a fierce demon jealous and ashamed. The host is lifted up. Behold The vintage spilt, the broken bread ! I feast upon the cruel cold A SAINT’S DAMNATION. Pale body that was ripe and red. Only, her head, her palms, her feet, YOU buy my spirit with those peerless eyes I kissed all night, and did not eat. That burn my soul; you loose the torrent stream So, and not otherwise, the word Of my desire ; you make my lips your prize, Of God was utterly fulfilled. So, and not. otherwise. I heard And on them burns the whole life’s hope: Her spirit cry, by death not stilled : you deem “ My sin is perfect in thy blood, You buy a heart; but I am well aware And thou and I have conquered God.” How my damnation dwells in that supreme A SAINT’S DAMNATION I33

Passion to feed upon your shoulders bare, And pass the dewy twilight of our sin In the intolerable flames of hair LOT.

That clothe body from “And while he lingered . . . they brought my your head; you him forth, and set him without the city."— win GEN. xix. 16. The devil’s bargain; I am yours to kill, Yours, for one kiss; my spirit for your skin ! TURN back from safety : in my love abide, Whose lips are warm as when, a virgin bride,

! I clung to thee ashamed and glad, O bitter love, consuming all my will very Whose breasts are lordlier for the pain they O love destroying, that hast drained my life had, Of all those fountains of dear blood that fill Whose arms cleave closer than thy spouse’s own, Thy spouse—O lover, kiss me, and atone ! My heart! O would I call woman, you All veins bleed for love, my ripe breasts ? my wife . beat

Would I content with touch divine ! you one And lay‘ their bleeding blossoms at thy feet To flood with the strife your spirit clinging Spurn me no more! O bid these strangers go Ξ Of perfect passionate joy, the joy of wine, Turn to my lips till their cup overflow ; The drunkenness of extreme pleasure, filled Hurt me with kisses, kill me with desire, From sin’s amazing cup? Oh, mine, mine, Consume me and destroy me with the fire mine, Of bleeding passion straining at the heart, Touched to the core by sweetnesses that Mine, if your kisses maddened me or- killed, smart; Mine, at the price of my damnation deep, Bitten by fiery snakes, whose poisonous Mine, if you will, as once your glances breath willed ! Swoons in the midnight, and dissolves to death ! Ah ! let me perish and not endure Take me, or break slay or soothe to so, me, falsehood who have known love sleep, Thy thy was sure, If only yours one hour, one perfect hour, Built by sighs a palace of long years—— Remembrance and despair and hope to steep up Lo ! it was faery, and the spell of tears Dissolves it utterly. O bid them go, In the infernal potion of that flower, These white-faced boys, where calmer rivers My poisonous passion for your blood ! flow Behold ! And birds less passionate invoke the spring How utterly I yield, how gladly dower Or seek their loves with weaker, wearier wing. Our sin with my own Spirit’s qtenchéd Turn back from safety! Let God’s rivers gold, pour Clothe love with my own soul’s immortal Brimstone and fire, and all his fountains roar power, Lava and hail of hell upon my head, Give thee my body as a fire to hold—— So be he leave us altogether dead, O love, no words, no songs—your breast Burnt in that shameful whirlwind of his ire, my bower ! Consumed in one tall pyramid of fire 134 JEZEBEL; AND OTHER TRAGIC POEMS

Whose bowers of flame shall tell the sky of Of passion ! Listen to thine own voice yet : God “ A rich man many flocks and herds did get How we despised his feet with thunder And took the poor man’s lamb.” Thou shod, art the man ! And conquered, clasping, all the host of Our love must lie beneath thy bitter ban ! death. Thou petty, envious God ! My king, be Turn to me, touch me, mix thy very breath sure With mine to mingle floods of fiery dew His brute force shall not to the end endure ; With flames of purple, like the sea shot Some stronger soul than thine shall wrest through his crown With golden glances of a fiercer star. And thrust him from his own high heaven Turn to me, bend above me, you may char down These olive shoulders with an old-time kiss, To some obscure forgetful hell. For me And fix thy mouth upon me for such bliss Forsake thy hopes in him ! 'We worship, Of sudden rage rekindled. Turn again, we, And make delight the minister of pain, Rather the clear delights we know and hold ; And pain the father of a new delight, The first cool kiss, within the water cold And light a lamp of torture for the night That draws its music from some bubbling Too grievous to be borne without a cry well, To rend the very bowels of the sky Looks long, looks deadly, looks desirable, And make the archangel gasp—a sudden The touch that fires, the next kiss, and the pang, whole Most like a traveller stricken by the fang Body embracing, symbol of the soul, Of the black adder whose squat head And all the perfect passion of an hour. springs up, Turn to me, pluck that amaranthine flower, A flash of death, beneath a cactus cup. And leave the doubtful blossoms of the sky ! Ah turn ! my bosom for thy love is cold ; You dare not kiss me! dare not draw you My arms are empty, and my lips can hold nigh No converse with thee far awayélike this. Lest I should lure you to remain ! nor speak O for that communing pregnant with a kiss Lest you should catch the blood within your That is reborn when lips are set together cheek To link our souls in one desirous tether, Mantling. You dared enough—so long And weld our very bodies into one. ago 1—— Ah fiend Jehovah, what then have we done When to my blossom body clean as snow To earn thy curse—is love like ours too You pressed your bosom till desire was pain, strong And—then—that midnight-—you did dare To dwell before thee, and do thy throne remain no wrong? Though all my limbs were bloody with your Art thou grown jealous of the fiery band? mouth Lo ! thou hast spoken, and thy strong com- That tore their flesh to satiate its drouth, mand That was not thereby satisfied ! And now Bade earth and air divide, and on the sea A pallid coward, with sly, skulking brow, Thy spirit moved—and thou must envy me ! You must leave Sodom for your spouse’s Gird all thy godhead to destroy a man sake. Whose little moment is a single span, Coward and coward and coward! who would Whose small desire is nothing—and thy take power The best flower of my life and leave me so, Must root from out his bosom the fair flower Still loving you—Ah ! weak—and turn to go EPILOGUE Ι35

For fear of such a God ! O blind! O fool! EPILOGUE. To heed these strangers, and to be the tool Of their smooth lies and monstrous miracles! TO die amid the blossoms of the frost O break this bondage and cast off their On far fair heights ; to sleep the quiet spells ! sleep Five righteous ! Thou a righteous man ! A Of dead men underneath the snowy steep jest ! Of many mountains ; ever to have lost A righteous man—you always loved me best, These cares and these distrusts ; to lie alone, And even when lured by lips of wanton girls Watched by the distant eagle’s drowsy Would turn away. and sigh and touch my wing, curls Stars and grey summits, and the winds And slip half-conscious to the old em- that sing brace :— Slow dirges in eternal monotone. And now you will not let me see your face Or hear your voice or touch you. Ah! the Such is my soul’s desire, being weary of hour! This vain eternity of sleepless dreams He moves. Come back, come back, my That is my life ; withal there still may be life’s one flower ! In other worlds, the hope of other love Come back. One kiss before you leave Than this that floods my veins with me. So ! poisonous streams, Stop—turn—one little kiss before you go ; And wastes with wan desire the soul It is my right—you must. Oh no ! Oh no ! of me. SCANS FROM ALEISTER CROWLEY’S THE EQUINOX More at https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox

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