Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
Where double quotes have been repeated at the beginnings of
consecutive stanzas, they have been omitted for clarity.

TANNHÄUSER

XVI
One is incisive, corrosive;
Two retorts, nettled, curt, crepitant;
Three makes rejoinder, expansive, explosive;
Four overbears them all, strident and strepitant:
Five ... O Danaides, O Sieve!

XVII
Now, they ply axes and crowbars;
Now, they prick pins at a tissue
Fine as a skein of the casuist Escobar’s
Worked on the bone of a lie. To what issue?
Where is our gain at the Two-bars?

XVIII
_Est fuga, volvitur rota._
On we drift: where looms the dim port?
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, contribute their quota;
Something is gained, if one caught but the import—
Show it us, Hughes of Saxe-Gotha!

R. BROWNING, _Master Hughes of Saxe-Gotha_

TANNHÄUSER
A STORY OF ALL TIME

BY
ALEISTER CROWLEY

_A New Edition
Price Fifteen Shillings
net to the trade_

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF
RELIGIOUS TRUTH
BOLESKINE, FOYERS, INVERNESS
1907

_All Rights Reserved_

DEDICATION

I shall not tell thee that I love thee!
Nay! by the Star in Heaven burning,
Its ray to me at midnight turning
To tell me that it beams above thee—
Nay! though thou wert, as I am, yearning,
I should not tell thee that I love thee!

I know what secret thought once blossomed
Into a blush that seemed a kiss,
Some swift suppressed extreme of bliss
In thy most fearful sigh embosomed.
What oracle should prate of this?
I know the secret thought that blossomed!

Extol the truth of love’s disdain!
Love, daring by no glance to gladden
A heart that waits but that to madden
In purple pleasure plucked of pain.
Nay! let our tears, that fail to sadden,
Extol the truth of love’s disdain!

* * * * *

Let deeper silence shield the deeper rapture!
Hardly our eyes reveal the inward bliss,
Sealed by no speech and shadowed by no kiss.
Love is no wizard to elude recapture
In the strong prison of his silences!
Let deeper silence shield the deeper rapture!

Twin souls are we, to one Star bound in Heaven!
Twin souls on earth by earthly bars divided!
But, did thy spirit glide as mine has glided
Straight to That Star—no rose-leaves ask to leaven
The manna that the Moon of Love provided!
Twin souls are we, to one Star bound in Heaven!

Not to thy presence in the veil and vision
Of solemn lies that men miscall the world;
Not to thy mind the lightnings truthward hurled
I turn. I laugh dead distance to derision!—
Spirit to spirit: there our loves are curled,
Not to thy presence in the veil and vision!

Beyond the gold and glamour of Life’s lotus,
The flower that falls from this our stronger sight,
We dwell, eternal shapes of shadowy light.
Only the love on earth that shook and smote us
Begets new stars—truth’s flowers fallen through night
Beyond the gold and glamour of Life’s lotus!

Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers!
Light, the gemmed robes of Love! Life, lifted breath,
Ageless existence deifying death!
Love, the sole flower beyond these lesser flowers!—
In thee at last the live fruit quickeneth?
Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers!

* * * * *

There, secret! Know it! Now forget!
Betray not Wisdom unto Folly!
Less sweet is Joy than Melancholy!—
Why should our eyes for this be wet?
Enough: be silent and be holy!
There, secret! Know it! Now forget!

Now I have told thee that I love thee!
To me our Star in Heaven burning
Tells me thy heart as mine is yearning;
Tells me Love’s fragrance stolen above thee
Thy soul to mine at last is turning
Now I have told thee that I love thee!