Raising the Devil

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 can 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,
Unblenched 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
Rejoined 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 fenc'd 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!!