Classic Poem

“So thou hast cast me forth and art elated
To see me here, undone, humiliated,
And by thy saintly majesty oppressed;
I, of great Satan's acolytes the boldest,
While now command thou arrogantly holdest
Over the useless flesh I possessed,

“Yon odious beggar, haggard and mephitic,
With face impure and gaunt limbs paralytic,
Fetid with vermin, foul with all disease,
Who now stands clamoring by thy mantle loudly,
Hailing in boorish veneration proudly
Thy deeds miraculous and thy prodigies!

“Thy simple word from his base form expelled me,
Thy hand august in holy horror held me,
And as a wind that carries chaff away,
Thy prayers have swept me from his bones tormented,
While I, rebellious and most discontented,
Am forced thy rigorous mandates to obey!

“But no sweet sign of thine can ever urge him
To paths of righteousness again, and purge him
From my time-clinging and disastrous stain,
For he is doomed in primal sin to linger,
And the soft touch of thy consoling finger
To heal his tainted soul has been in vain!

“I was cast forth, I, Devil, who hate malignly,
Before thine anger as it warmed divinely,
But my disgrace is tempered in its smart;
For I say to thee, marvelous restorer,
No grace of thine can cleanse thy vile adorer,
Or purify the hell that holds his heart.

“The utter truth of these my words thou knowest,
For on thy brow impassible thou showest
To me, even now, a sad, reluctant dread!
Oh Jesus! wise and holy man, elected
By His decree and by a God protected,
How by my arts wast thou in error led!

“Affecting once to spurn and to despise me,
With mien all insolent thou didst exorcise me
Before the rabble of the road and town.
But tell me, prophet, didst thou not dissemble?
If not, why dost thou blanchen now and tremble,
Conscious of crime, with humble eyes cast down?