Classic Poem

There was a devil and his name was I;
From out Profundus he did cry:
He changed his note as he changed his coat,
And his coat was of a varying dye.
It had many a hue: in hell 'twas blue,
'Twas green i' the sea, and white i' the sky.
O, do not ask me, ask me why
'Twas green i' the sea, and white i' the sky;
Why from Profundus he did cry:
Suffice that he wailed with a chirruping note,
And quaintly cut was his motley coat. —

I have forgot the rest. Would I could sleep;
Would I could sleep away an age or so,
And let Saul work out his own weal or woe:
All that I ask is to be let alone.

O, to be let alone! to be let alone!
To laugh if I list; if I list to groan;
Despairing, yet knowing God's anger o'erblown.
O, why should God trouble me?
Why should he double my
Sorrow, pursuing me when he has thrown
Me out of his favor? O, why should he labor
Down lower ever thrusting me into hell's zone?
O let me alone! O let me alone!
O leave me, Creator, Tormentor, alone!

SAUL

The Jewish king now walks at large and sound,
Yet of our emissary Malzah hear we nothing:
Go now, sweet spirit, and, if need be, seek
This world all over for him: — find him out,
Be he within the bounds of earth and hell.
He is a most erratic spirit, so
May give thee trouble (as I give thee time)
To find him, for he may be now diminished,
And at the bottom of some silken flower,
Wherein, I know, he loves, when evening comes,
To creep, and lie all night, encanopied
Beneath the manifold and scented petals;
Fancying, he says, he bids the world adieu,
And is again a slumberer in heaven:
Or, in some other vein, perchance thou'lt find him
Within the walls or dens of some famed city.
Give thou a general search, in open day,
I' the town and country's ample field; and next
Seek him in dusky cave, and in dim grot;
And in the shadow of the precipice,
Prone or supine extended motionless;
Or, in the twilight of o'erhanging leaves,
Swung at the nodding arm of some vast beech.
By moonlight seek him on the mount, at noon
In the translucent waters salt or fresh;
Or near the dank-marged fountain, or clear well,
Watching the tadpole thrive on suck of venom;
Or where the brook runs o'er the stones, and smooths
Their green locks with its current's crystal comb.
Seek him in rising vapors, and in clouds
Crimson or dun; and often on the edge
Of the gray morning and of tawny eve:
Search in the rocky alcove and woody bower;
And in the crows'-nest look, and into every
Pilgrim-crowd-drawing Idol, wherein he
Is wont to sit in darkness and be worshipped.
If thou shouldst find him not in these, search for him
By the lone melancholy tarns of bitterns;
And in the embosomed dells, whereunto maidens
Resort to bathe within the tepid pool.
Look specially there, and, if thou seest peeping
Satyr or fawn, give chase and call out " Malzah! "