Analysis of The Twins

Aleister Crowley 1875 (Leamington Spa) – 1947 (Hastings)



[Dedicated to Austin Osman Spare]

Have pity ! show no pity !
Those eyes that send such shivers
Into my brain and spine : oh let them
Flame like the ancient city
Swallowed up by the sulphurous rivers
When men let angels fret them !

Yea ! let the south wind blow,
And the Turkish banner advance,
And the word go out : No quarter !
But I shall hod thee -so !
While the boys and maidens dance
About the shambles of slaughter !

I know thee who thou art,
The inmost fiend that curlest
Thy vampire tounge about
Earth's corybantic heart,
Hell's warrior that whirlest
The darts of horror and doubt !

Thou knowest me who I am
The inmost soul and saviour
Of man ; what hieroglyph
Of the dragon and the lamb
Shall thou and I engrave here
On Time's inscandescable cliff ?

Look ! in the plished granite,
Black as thy cartouche is with sins,
I read the searing sentence
That blasts the eyes that scan it :
"HOOR and SET be TWINS."
A fico for repentance !

Ay ! O Son of my mother
That snarled and clawed in her womb
As now we rave in our rapture,
I know thee, I love thee, brother !
Incestuous males that consumes
The light and the life that we capture.

Starve thou the soul of the world,
Brother, as I the body !
Shall we not glut our lust
On these wretches whom Fate hath hurled
To a hell of jesus and shoddy,
Dung and ethics and dust ?

Thou as I art Fate.
Coe then, conquer and kiss me !
Come ! what hinders? Believe me :
This is the thought we await.
The mark is fair ; can you miss me ?

See, how subtly I writhe !
Strange runes and unknown sigils
I trace in the trance that thrills us.
Death ! how lithe, how blithe
Are these male incestuous vigils !
Ah ! this is the spasm that kills us !

Wherefore I solemnly affirm
This twofold Oneness at the term.
Asar on Asi did beget
Horus twin brother unto Set.
Now Set and Horus kiss, to call
The Soul of the Unnatural
Forth from the dusk ; then nature slain
Lets the Beyond be born again.

This weird is of the tongue of Khem,
The Conjuration used of them.
Whoso shall speak it, let him die,
His bowels rotting inwardly,
Save he uncover and caress
The God that lighteth his liesse.


Scheme A BCDBCD EFGEFG HBIHBI JAKJXK XLMXLM GXGGXG NBONBO PBBPB XCQXXQ RRSSXXXX DDXBXC
Poetic Form
Metre 1000110101 1101110 1111110 011101111 1101010 10110110 1111011 110111 00101001 00111110 111111 1010101 01010110 111111 01111 110101 111 110011 0111001 111111 01101 11101 1010001 1101011 1111 100110 1111111 1101010 1101111 10111 0101010 1111110 11001001 111101010 11111110 0101101 010011110 1101101 1011010 1111101 1111111 101110010 101001 11111 1110011 1110011 1101101 01111111 1110011 110011 11001111 11111 11101010 111010111 1110001 11110101 111101 10110101 11010111 01100100 11011101 10011101 11110111 01111 1111111 11010100 11010001 011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 2,053
Words 393
Sentences 35
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 8, 6
Lines Amount 68
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 136
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

1:58 min read
85

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, and mountaineer. more…

All Aleister Crowley poems | Aleister Crowley Books

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