Classic Poem

Smiling scornfully, I answer'd: —
" Strange it seems to find the Devil,
" Spite a record so despairing,
Optimistic, after all!

" Yet, methinks, thy boasted Demos
Is the very worst of tyrants!
Better far a single Caesar
Than a Caesar hydra-headed!

" Gaze again upon thy kingdom!
Look on Rome! As thou didst wander
In the streets of Rome departed,
Sick of God and God's creation,

" So from day to day I wander
In the City of thy Demos, —
Demos is a fouler Caesar,
London is a lewder Rome!

" Still the Priests and Seers and Prophets
Preach the faith they feel no longer —
Keeping to the ear the promise
They have broken to the Soul;

" Still the slaves and tyrants palter
With the truth they dare not utter —
Still the spectral Man of Sorrows
Starveth at the Church's door;

" Still, to blind the foolish people,
With the worn-out creed men juggle, —
Even o'er their cheating parchments
Smiling lawyers hold the Cross;

" Atheist judges, cold and cruel,
Toss the murtherer to the hangman,
Crying, while they shrug their shoulders,
" God have mercy on thy soul! "

" Dark and dissolute and dreadful
As that other Rome departed,
Is this later Rome and lewder, —
Death is crowned here as there!

" Last, thy Demos, while denying
All Divinity, assevers
He's essentially a Christian
Since he leads a moral life!"

Smiling quietly my Devil
Answer'd, " True, O angry Poet —
There my Demos errs: Messiahs
Always are immoral persons!

" If the Christ of Superstition
Work'd no miracles or wonders,
If the man was well-conducted,
He was surely no Messiah!"

Sadly, wearily, he added:
" Here as in the Rome departed
Priests abide and Folly lingers
Conquering in the name of God;

" Priests abide, but Death is reigning!
Thus, in spite of God, I triumph!
Patience, patience, for my Demos
Groweth wiser day by day!

" 'Tis the way of foolish mortals,
When they cease to feel religion,
To become severely moral,
Hating Liberty and Light —

" So, I grant, my woe-worn Demos
Makes Morality his fetish,
Closing ears and shutting eyelids
To the sanctions of the Flesh.

" Patience, patience! I will teach him
Love that passeth understanding!
All the wondrous lore of Nature
Shall be open to his gaze!

" This, at least, is certain: Never
Will he lose again his birthright!
Never bend before his tyrants,
Here on earth, or there in Heaven!

" Never will he kneel and listen
To the lies of your Messiahs,
Forfeit for a fancied blessing
Light and Liberty and Life!

" Patience, patience! Light is growing —
God at last shall be forgotten —
Man shall rise erect, subduing
All things evil, even Death!"