'AND hast thou nerve enough?' he said, That grey Old Man, above whose head Unnumber'd years had roll'd, -- 'And hast thou nerve to view,' he cried, 'The incarnate Fiend that Heaven defied! -- Art thou indeed so bold? 'Say, canst thou, with unshrinking gaze, Sustain, rash youth, the withering blaze Of that unearthly eye, That blasts where'er it lights, -- the breath That, like the Simoom, scatters death On all that yet @3can@1 die! '-- Darest thou confront that fearful form, That rides the whirlwind, and the storm, In wild unholy revel! The terrors of that blasted brow, Archangel's once, -- though ruin'd now -- -- Ay, -- dar'st thou face THE DEVIL?' -- 'I dare!' the desperate Youth replied, And placed him by that Old Man's side, In fierce and frantic glee, Unblench'd his cheek, and firm his limb; 'No paltry juggling Fiend, but HIM! -- THE DEVIL! -- I fain would see! -- 'In all his Gorgon terrors clad, His worst, his fellest shape!' the Lad Rejoin'd in reckless tone. -- 'Have then thy wish!' Agrippa said, And sigh'd and shook his hoary head, With many a bitter groan. He drew the mystic circle's bound, With skull and cross-bones fenced around; He traced full many a sigil there; He mutter'd many a backward pray'r, That sounded like a curse -- 'He comes!' -- he cried with wild grimace, 'The fellest of Apollyon's race!' -- -- Then in his startled pupil's face He dash'd -- an EMPTY PURSE!! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YOUTH AND ART by ROBERT BROWNING AN APPEAL TO MY COUNTRYWOMEN by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER LETTER TO MY SISTER by ANNE SPENCER THE LADY'S DRESSING ROOM by JONATHAN SWIFT THE ZONE OF VENUS by ANTIPHANES |