Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DEVIL'S SNUFF BOX, by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DEVIL'S SNUFF BOX, by                    
First Line: Now that which for many years I have lived for
Last Line: As the sight of devil's snuff-boxes.
Subject(s): Devil; Enemies; Evil; Satan; Mephistopheles; Lucifer; Beelzebub


NOW that which for many years I have lived for
Is done; now that my enemy is vanquished,
Now that I know myself the victor—
What do I know myself for?
For that which is empty but for foulness;
Like that fungus which children call
The devil's snuff-box; a skin filled with nothingness
But evil odour. A prick, a puff of black dust;
A smell; and the memory of that which offended.
Yet, in vanishing, the devil's snuff-box
Spreads seeds of its own foulness
In the dust that it scatters.
So will the trail which I leave behind
In the applause with which men hail my name
Make other devil's snuff-boxes; fair to the seeming;
Swollen with pride and with the bloating corruption
Into which dead souls turn.
Till, their mission filled, their enemies vanquished,
They know themselves but for stench and dust,
Their souls consumed with consuming,
Vanquished in the victory that men applaud,
As children clap their hands
As the sight of devil's snuff-boxes.





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