Analysis of La Gitana

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



Your hair was full of roses in the dewfall as we danced,
The sorceress enchanting and the paladin entranced,
In the starlight as we wove us in a web of silk and steel
Immemorial as the marble in the halls of Boabdil,
In the pleasuance of the roses with the fountains and the yews
Where the snowy Sierra soothed us with the breezes and the dews!
In the starlight as we trembled from a laugh to a caress,
And the God came warm upon us in our pagan allegresse.
Was the Baile de la Bona too seductive? Did you feel
Through the silence and the softness all the tension of the steel?
For your hair was full of roses, and my flesh was full of thorns,
And the midnight came upon us worth a million crazy morns.
Ah! my Gipsy, my Gitana, my Saliya! were you fain
For the dance to turn to earnest? - O the sunny land of Spain!
My Gitana, my Saliya! more delicious than a dove!
With your hair aflame with roses and your lips alight with love!
Shall I see you, shall I kiss you once again? I wander far
From the sunny land of summer to the icy Polar Star.
I shall find you, I shall have you! I am coming back again
From the filth and fog to seek you in the sunny land of Spain.
I shall find you, my Gitana, my Saliya! as of old
With your hair aflame with roses and your body gay with gold.
I shall find you, I shall have you, in the summer and the south
With our passion in your body and our love upon your mouth -
With our wonder and our worship be the world aflame anew!
My Gitana, my Saliya! I am coming back to you!


Scheme AABBCCCCBBCCDDEEFFGDHHIIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110001111 010100010001 00111110011101 0100101000111 00110101010001 1010010111010001 00111101011001 00111011010101 10111101010111 101000101010101 111111100111111 00110111010101 111101011011 101111101010111 1010111010101 111011100110111 111111111011101 101011101010101 111111111110101 101011110010111 1111101011111 111011100110111 111111110010001 11010011001010111 11010010101010101 1010111110111
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,514
Words 306
Sentences 22
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 45
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,164
Words per stanza (avg) 304
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 15, 2023

1:31 min read
171

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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