‘It was your Wickedness my Love to Win’

Abstract

This paper will deal with one of the earliest phases of Aleister Crowley’s (1875–1947) life: his university years spent writing Decadent poetry. Contrary to the vast majority of previous critics, biographer John Symonds in primis, I will set forth the hypothesis that, far from being an amateur and inconsistent lyricist, Crowley fit perfectly within the British Decadent milieu of his day, and should also be considered a bona fide Decadent poet, alongside his more famous colleagues Arthur Symons and Ernest Dowson. Through an analysis of Crowley’s Cambridge years, literary influences, and of the poet’s own verse, it will be my resolve to prove this hypothesis and situate the figure of Crowley qua poet as a legitimate representative of the Naughty Nineties, and to position his poetic output within the already accepted canon of British Decadent verse.