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The Works

Exordium from Nuit

From "Orpheus Liber Quartus vel Mortis"
"Collected Works iii" p. 216ff

Enough. It is ended, the story Of magical ćons of song;
The sun is gone down in his glory
    To the Houses of Hate and of Wrong.
        Would ye see if he rise?
        In Hesperian a skies
    Ye may look for his rising for long.

The magical ćon beginneth
    Of song in the heart of desire,
That smiteth and striveth and sinneth,
    But burns up the soul of the lyre: -
        There is pain in the note: -
        In the sorcerer's throat
    Is a sword, and his brain is afire!

Long after (to men: but a moment
    To me in my mansion of rest)
Is a sundawn to blaze what the glow meant
    Seen long after death in the west;
        A magical ćon!
        Nor love-song nor pćan,
    But a flame with a silvery crest.

There shall rise a sweet song of the soul
    Far deeper than love or distress;
Beyond mortals and gods shall it roll;
    It shall find me, and crave, and caress.
        Ah! me it shall capture  
        In torrents of rapture;
    It shall flood me, an fill, and posses.

For brighter from age unto age
    The weary old world shall renew
Its life at the lips of the sage,
    Its love at the lips of the dew.
        With kisses and tears
        The return of the years
    Is sure as the starlight is true.

Yet the drift of the stars is to beauty,
    To strenght, and to infinite pleasure.
The toil and worship and duty
    Shall turn them to laughter and leisure.
        Were the world understood
        Ye would se it was good,
    A dance to a delicate measure.

Ye fools, interweaving in passion
    The lyrical light of the mind!
Go on in your drivelling fashion!
    Ye shall surely seek long and not find.
        From without ye may see
        All the beauty of me,
    And my lips, that their kisses are kind.

For Eurodice once I lamented;
    For Orpheus I do not lament:
Her days were a span, and demented;
    His days are for aye a, and content.
        Mere love is as nought
        To the love that is Thought,
    And idea is more than event.

O lovers! O poets! O masters
    Of me, ye may ravish my frown!  
Aloof from my chocks and disasters!
    Impatient to kiss me, and crown!
        I am eager to yield.
        In the warrior field
    Ye shall fight me, and fasten me down.

O poets! O masters! O lovers!
    Sweet souls of the strenght of the sun!
The couch a of eternity covers
    Our loves, and our dreams are as done.
        Reality closes
        Our life into roses;
    We are infinite space: we are one.

There is one b that hath sought me and found me
    In the heart of the sand and the snow:
He hath caught me, and held me, and bound me,
    In the lands where no flowers may grow.
        His voice is a spell,
        Hath enchanted me well!
    I am his, did I will it or no.

But I will it, I will it, I will it!
    His speck of a soul in its cars
Shall lift up immensity! fill it
    With light of his lyrical bars.
        His soul shall concentre c
        All space; he shall enter
    The beautiful land of the stars.

He shall know me eternally wedded
    To the splendid and subtle of mind;
For the pious, the arrogant-headed,
    He shall know they nor seek me nor find.
        O afloat in me curled!
        Cry aloud to the world
    That I and my kisses are kind!

O lover! O poet! O maiden  
To me in my magical way!
Be thy songs with the wilderness laden!
    Thy lyre be adrift and astray: -
        So to me thou shalt cling!
        So to me thou shalt sing
    Of the beautiful law of the day!

I forbid thee to weep or to worship;
    I forbid thee to sing or to write! a
The Star-Goddess guideth us her ship;
    The sails belly out with the light.
        Beautiful head!
        We will sing on our bed
    Of the beautiful law of the Night!

We are lulled by the whirr b of the stars;
    We are fanned by the whisper, the wind;
We are locked in unbreakable bars,
    The love of the spirit and mind.
        The infinite powers
        Of rapture are ours;
    We are one, and our kisses are kind.

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     a Hesperian: after the Garden of the Hesperides with the famous golden apples, playing a part in many myths, for example in the story of the beauty-contest which led to the Trojan War. This garden owned by Atlas, guarded by the Nymphs of the Hesperides and the dragon, Ladon. In one of his twelve labours Hercules obtained some apples from the garden. Hesperia means the land of the evening, given by Aeneas to Italy. 

     a aye: as remarked above this word means "for ever".

     a couch: this word with several meanings, must here denote: "the bed," "the sofa," and the like.

     b Possibly intended as a reference to the poet himself.'

(The Poet's note "Collected Works" iii p. 217.)

- As well know our Poet, the Prophet, had a hard time accepting his status, the first five years after receiving "The Book of the Law". He wrote "Orpheus" in the time shortly after, and although this work did not conform to the Book in all ways, we see its importance every now and then, especially in this exordium.

     c concentre: bring, come, to a common centre.

     a As clear from the previous and following verses She "forbidding" jestingly, without quoting "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", the poetry implicit states this for "the masters of Her".  See also the comment to "The Book of the Law".

     b whirr, also spelled: "whir": "to fly," or "revolve," with a whizzing or buzzing sound.

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