Classic Poem

" Stay," he said, " and listen to me!
I am he thy conscience pictures,
I am he whom men deem evil,
Anti-Christ and Anti-God!

" I have answer'd to thy summons!
I am he whom the Almighty,
Judge as well as prosecutor,
Ever hath condemn'd unheard.

" Never has the case been stated
Properly for the Defendant —
I entreat you, listen to me!
Set me right before the world!

" Purblind as the priests and prophets
Ev'n the Poets have traduced me, —
Ev'n the Poets, tho' I love them,
And have taught them all they know!

" Marlowe, though my favourite pupil,
Painted me a very Monster,
Corybantic, cloven-footed,
Insolent and goggle-eyed.

" Milton's Devil was a parson
Voluble and bellows-winded,
Like his garrulous God Almighty
Quite impossibly absurd.

" Calderon malign'd me also!
Painting in his assonantic
Magico Prodigioso
Only hideousness divine.

" All the others, down to Goethe,
Fed the foolish superstition —
Goethe, that superior person,
Blunder'd also, like his betters.

" Byron (tho' I loved the fellow!
Tho' I gave him winged arrows
To destroy the swinish virtues
In the pigsties of King George!) —

" Byron could not paint me truly, —
" Stead of gazing in the mirror,
Where he surely might have found me,
Fair of face though lame of foot,

" He proclaim'd a prosy Devil
Like the fiend of Bailey, mixing
Bad blank verse and metaphysics
In the same old-fashion'd style!

" Even Burns, my prince of singers,
Nature's skylark render'd human,
Treated me with scornful pity,
Prayed that I might mend my ways!

" Never one has comprehended
My true nature and profession;
Every one of these, my chosen,
Sped the hideous libel on.

" I'm the kindest-hearted creature
In this Universe of Sorrows!
My affection for you mortals
Is the cause of all my woes!

" Listen, then — for you're a Poet,
Equal in your own opinion
To the best of all those others,
Tho' extremely little read;

" Men, be sure, will never make you
Laureate in a Christian Country, —
Nay, the office is abolish'd
Since no Christian Bard survives:

" Be the Laureate of the Devil!
Justify his ways to mortals!
State the case for the Defendant
" Spite the Times and 'spite the gods!

" I have watch'd and waited for you
Since you sang that Yuletide Carol,
Picturing the Jew immortal
Wailing vainly for a Father!

" From the darkest depths of Sheol
I was marking and applauding. . . .
Having sung the only Jesus,
Go and sing the only Devil!

" Do it straightway! and for ever
I'll protect your reputation!
Long as I, the Devil, am reigning,
You shall honour'd be in Hell!"

Half in jest and half in earnest
Spake the Devil, smiling slyly, —
And I answer'd, " Sing your praises?
Devil take me if I do!"