Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Quarantania, the Mount | | The Temptation | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | (From The Divine Tragedy)
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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