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Litany To Satan (From Baudelaire.)

Topics: classic

O grandest of the Angels, and most wise,     O fallen God, fate-driven from the skies,     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     O first of exiles who endurest wrong,     Yet growest, in thy hatred, still more strong,     Satan, at last take pity on our pain!     O subterranean King, omniscient,     Healer of man's immortal discontent,     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     To lepers and to outcasts thou dost show     That Passion is the Paradise below.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou by thy mistress Death hast given to man     Hope, the imperishable courtesan.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou givest to the Guilty their calm mien     Which damns the crowd around the guillotine.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou knowest the corners of the jealous Earth     Where God has hidden jewels of great worth.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou dost discover by mysterious signs     Where sleep the buried people of the mines.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou stretchest forth a saving hand to keep     Such men as roam upon the roofs in sleep.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thy power can make the halting Drunkard's feet     Avoid the peril of the surging street.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thou, to console our helplessness, didst plot     The cunning use of powder and of shot.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Thy awful name is written as with pitch     On the unrelenting foreheads of the rich.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     In strange and hidden places thou dost move     Where women cry for torture in their love.     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.     Father of those whom God's tempestuous ire     Has flung from Paradise with sword and fire,     Satan, at last take pity on our pain.

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"O grandest of the Angels, and most wise,..."

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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