Long Odds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster

A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)

How many million galaxies there are

Who knows? and each has countless stars in it,

And each rolls through eternities afar

Beneath the threshold of the Infinite.

How is it that will all that space to roam

I should have found this mote that spins and leaps

In what unutterable sunlight, foam

Of what unfathomable starry deeps

Who knows!? And how this thousand million souls

And half a thousand million souls of earth

That swarm, all bound for unimagined goals,

All pioneers of death enrolled at birth,

How were they swept away before my sight,

That I might stand upon the single prick

Of infinite space and time as infinite,

Who knows? Yet here I stand, climacteric,

Having found you. Was it by fall of chance?

Then what a stake against what odds I have won!

Was it determined in God’s ordinance?

Then wondrous love and pity for His son!

Or was it part of an eternal law?

Then how ineffably beneficent!

Each thought excites an ecstasy of awe,

A rapture rending the mind’s firmament.

Infinity -yet you and I have met.

Eternity -yet hand in hand we run.

All odds that I should lose you or forget,

But, soul and spirit and body, we are one.

Is this the child of Chance, or Law, or Will?

Is None or All or One to thank for this?

It will not matter if thanksgiving fill

The endless empyrean with a kiss.

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Poems in English 

• God Neither Known Nor Loved By The World by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Glory To God Alone by William Cowper by William Cowper
• From The Greek Of Julianus by William Cowper by William Cowper
• From Menander by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epitaph On Mrs. M. Higgins, Of Weston by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epitaph On Johnson by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epitaph On Fop, A Dog Belonging To Lady Throckmorton by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epitaph On A Free But Tame Redbreast, A Favourite Of Miss Sally Hurdis by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epitaph On Mr. Chester Of Chicheley by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epigram : To Leonora Singing At Rome (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epigram : To Christina, Queen Of Sweden, With Cromwell’s Picture (Translation) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epigram : The Cottager And His Landlord. A Fable (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epigram : On The Inventor Of Gunpowder (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Epigram : To Leonora Singing At Rome 2 (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy VII. Anno Aetates Undevigesimo (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy VI. To Charles Diodati, When He Was Visiting In The Country (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy V. Anno Aet. 20. On The Approach Of Spring (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy III. Anno Aet. 17. On The Death Of The Bishop Of Winchester (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy II. On The Death Of The University Beadle At Cambridge (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Elegy I. To Charles Deodati (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper

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