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I
LUCIFER. NOT in the lightning’s flash, nor in the thunder, | |
| Not in the tempest, nor the cloudy storm, | |
| Will I array my form; | |
| But part invisible these boughs asunder, | |
| And move and murmur, as the wind upheaves | 5 |
| And whispers in the leaves. | |
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| Not as a terror and a desolation, | |
| Not in my natural shape, inspiring fear | |
| And dread, will I appear; | |
| But in soft tones of sweetness and persuasion, | 10 |
| A sound as of the fall of mountain streams, | |
| Or voices heard in dreams. | |
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| He sitteth there in silence, worn and wasted | |
| With famine, and uplifts his hollow eyes | |
| To the unpitying skies; | 15 |
| For forty days and nights he hath not tasted | |
| Of food or drink, his parted lips are pale, | |
| Surely his strength must fail. | |
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| Wherefore dost thou in penitential fasting | |
| Waste and consume the beauty of thy youth? | 20 |
| Ah, if thou be in truth | |
| The Son of the Unnamed, the Everlasting, | |
| Command these stones beneath thy feet to be | |
| Changed into bread for thee! | |
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CHRISTUS. ’T is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, | 25 |
| But by each word that from God’s mouth proceedeth! | |
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II
LUCIFER. Too weak, alas! too weak is the temptation | |
| For one whose soul to nobler things aspires | |
| Than sensual desires! | |
| Ah, could I, by some sudden aberration, | 30 |
| Lead and delude to suicidal death | |
| This Christ of Nazareth! | |
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| Unto the holy Temple on Moriah, | |
| With its resplendent domes, and manifold | |
| Bright pinnacles of gold, | 35 |
| Where they await thy coming, O Messiah! | |
| Lo, I have brought thee! Let thy glory here | |
| Be manifest and clear. | |
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| Reveal thyself by royal act and gesture | |
| Descending with the bright triumphant host | 40 |
| Of all the highermost | |
| Archangels, and about thee as a vesture | |
| The shining clouds, and all thy splendors show | |
| Unto the world below! | |
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| Cast thyself down, it is the hour appointed; | 45 |
| And God hath given his angels charge and care | |
| To keep thee and upbear | |
| Upon their hands his only Son, the Anointed, | |
| Lest he should dash his foot against a stone | |
| And die, and be unknown. | 50 |
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CHRISTUS. ’T is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God! | |
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III
LUCIFER. I cannot thus delude him to perdition! | |
| But one temptation still remains untried, | |
| The trial of his pride, | |
| The thirst of power, the fever of ambition! | 55 |
| Surely by these a humble peasant’s son | |
| At last may be undone! | |
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| Above the yawning chasms and deep abysses, | |
| Across the headlong torrents, I have brought | |
| Thy footsteps, swift as thought; | 60 |
| And from the highest of these precipices, | |
| The Kingdoms of the world thine eyes behold, | |
| Like a great map unrolled. | |
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| From far-off Lebanon, with cedars crested, | |
| To where the waters of the Asphalt Lake | 65 |
| On its white pebbles break, | |
| And the vast desert, silent, sand-invested, | |
| These kingdoms all are mine, and thine shall be, | |
| If thou wilt worship me! | |
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CHRISTUS. Get thee behind me, Satan! thou shalt worship | 70 |
| The Lord thy God; Him only shalt thou serve! | |
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ANGELS MINISTRANT. The sun goes down; the evening shadows lengthen, | |
| The fever and the struggle of the day | |
| Abate and pass away; | |
| Thine Angels Ministrant, we come to strengthen | 75 |
| And comfort thee, and crown thee with the palm, | |
| The silence and the calm. | |
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