THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW

London, England

October 1903

(page 235)

POETRY.

Ahab and Other Poems. By Aleister Crowley. London: Privately printed at the Chiswick Press. 1903.

“Ahab and Other Poems”, by Mr. Aleister Crowley is a sumptuous volume, delightful to eyes accustomed to mediaeval script, but puzzling to such as are not. The prettiest poem in the book is “The Dream,” from which we give the opening lines:

“Bend down in dream the shadow-shape

Of tender breasts and bare!

Let the long locks of gold escape,

And cover me and fall and drape,

A pall of whispering hair!

And let the starry eyes look through

That mist of silken light

And lips drop forth their honey-dew

And gentle sighs of sleep renew

The scented winds of night.”

In “Melusine” Mr. Crowley has caught something of the trick of reiteration of metaphor, which is familiar to all readers of Mr. Swinburne, e.g.

And like a devil-fish is ice,

And like a devil-fish is cruel,

And like a devil-fish is hate.”

“Thule” is, in the same stanza, made to rhyme with “cruel”! The title-poem, which occupies two-thirds of the book, is a most unsatisfactory performance, but it is superior in technique to the rest.