Au Bal by Aleister Crowley
[Dedicated to Horace Sheridan-Bickers]
A vision of flushed faces, shining limbs, The madness of the music that entrances All life in its delirium of dances! The white world glitters in the void, and swims Through the infinite seas of transcendental trances. Yea! all the hoarded seed of all my fancies Bursts in a shower of suns! The wine-cup brims And bubbles over; I drink deep hymns Of sorceries, of spells, of necromancies; And all my spirit shudders; dew bedims My sight -these girls and their alluring glances! Their eyes that burn like dawn's lascivious lances Walking all earth to love -to love! Life skims The cream of joy. If God could see what man sees, (Intoxicating Nellies, Mauds and Nances!) I see Him leave the sapphrine expanses, The choir serene and the celestial air To swoon into their sacramental hair!
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