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