THE SUN

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

15 April 1934

(page 1)

CROWLEY'S POEMS.

MYSTICAL AND SENSUOUS THEMES.

Aleister Crowley was born at Leamington, Warwickshire, on October 12, 1875. Perhaps his work best known to Australians is the novel "The Diary of a Drug Fiend," published about 1922. He has written many poems.

In his "Red Poppy" the following lines occur:—

"One kiss, a starbeam faint

With love of a sweet saint

Stolen like a sacrament

In the night's shrine."

Elsewhere he writes of

"An Eden trod

Not by the seemly spirits of the sea,

But by brave men, built wholly of desire."

In his poem "The City of God" he wrote:—

". . . . the warrior signed for us to loose

Our shoes, for that ground whereon we trod

Was holy already from profaner use,

Being the outskirts of the City of God."

Crowley has also a set of grimly-satirical poems—"Songs [sic] Before Battle."