United States, (1807-1882)
THE DEMONIAC OF GADARA
- A GADARENE.
- He hath escaped, hath plucked his chains asunder,
- And broken his fetters; always night and day
- Is in the mountains here, and in the tombs,
- Crying aloud, and cutting himself with stones,
- Exceeding fierce, so that no man can tame him!
- THE DEMONIAC from above, unseen.
- O Aschmedai! O Aschmedai, have pity!
- A GADARENE.
- Listen! It is his voice! Go warn the people
- Just landing from the lake!
- THE DEMONIAC.
- O Aschmedai!
- Thou angel of the bottomless pit, have pity!
- It was enough to hurl King Solomon,
- On whom be peace! two hundred leagues away
- Into the country, and to make him scullion
- In the kitchen of the King of Maschkemen!
- Why dost thou hurl me here among these rocks,
- And cut me with these stones?
- A GADARENE.
- He raves and mutters
- He knows not what.
- THE DEMONIAC, appearing from a tomb among the rocks.
- The wild cock Tarnegal
- Singeth to me, and bids me to the banquet,
- Where all the Jews shall come; for they have slain
- Behemoth the great ox, who daily cropped
- A thousand hills for food, and at a draught
- Drank up the river Jordan, and have slain
- The huge Leviathan, and stretched his skin
- Upon the high walls of Jerusalem,
- And made them shine from one end of the world
- Unto the other; and the fowl Barjuchne,
- Whose outspread wings eclipse the sun, and make
- Midnight at noon o’er all the continents!
- And we shall drink the wine of Paradise
- From Adam’s cellars.
- A GADARENE.
- O thou unclean spirit!
- THE DEMONIAC, hurling down a stone.
- This is the wonderful Barjuchne’s egg,
- That fell out of her nest, and broke to pieces
- And swept away three hundred cedar-trees,
- And threescore villages! — Rabbi Eliezer,
- How thou didst sin there in that seaport town
- When thou hadst carried safe thy chest of silver
- Over the seven rivers for her sake!
- I too have sinned beyond the reach of pardon.
- Ye hills and mountains, pray for mercy on me!
- Ye stars and planets, pray for mercy on me!
- Ye sun and moon, oh pray for mercy on me!
- CHRISTUS and his disciples pass.
- A GADARENE.
- There is a man here of Decapolis,
- Who hath an unclean spirit; so that none
- Can pass this way. He lives among the tombs
- Up there upon the cliffs, and hurls down stones
- On those who pass beneath.
- CHRISTUS.
- Come out of him,
- Thou unclean spirit!
- THE DEMONIAC.
- What have I to do
- With thee, thou Son of God? Do not torment us.
- CHRISTUS.
- What is thy name?
- THE DEMONIAC.
- Legion; for we are many.
- Cain, the first murderer; and the King Belshazzar,
- And Evil Merodach of Babylon,
- And Admatha, the death-cloud, prince of Persia
- And Aschmedai the angel of the pit,
- And many other devils. We are Legion.
- Send us not forth beyond Decapolis;
- Command us not to go into the deep!
- There is a herd of swine here in the pastures,
- Let us go into them.
- CHRISTUS.
- Come out of him,
- Thou unclean spirit!
- A GADARENE.
- See how stupefied,
- How motionless he stands! He cries no more;
- He seems bewildered and in silence stares
- As one who, walking in his sleep, awakes
- And knows not where he is, and looks about him,
- And at his nakedness, and is ashamed.
- THE DEMONIAC.
- Why am I here alone among the tombs?
- What have they done to me, that I am naked?
- Ah, woe is me!
- CHRISTUS.
- Go home unto thy friends
- And tell them how great things the Lord hath done
- For thee, and how He had compassion on thee!
- A SWINEHERD, running.
- The herds! the herd! O most unlucky day!
- They were all feeding quiet in the sun,
- When suddenly they started, and grew savage
- As the wild boars of Tabor, and together
- Rushed down a precipice into the sea!
- They are all drowned!
- PETER.
- Thus righteously are punished
- The apostate Jews, that eat the flesh of swine,
- And broth of such abominable things!
- GREEKS OF GADARA.
- We sacrifice a sow unto Demeter
- At the beginning of harvest and another
- To Dionysus at the vintage-time.
- Therefore we prize our herds of swine, and count them
- Not as unclean, but as things consecrate
- To the immortal gods. O great magician,
- Depart out of our coasts; let us alone,
- We are afraid of thee.
- PETER.
- Let us depart;
- For they that sanctify and purify
- Themselves in gardens, eating flesh of swine.
- And the abomination, and the mouse,
- Shall be consumed together, saith the Lord!
Christus: A Mystery. 1872, Part I: The Divine Tragedy, Chapter: VII, The Demoniac of Gadara.
About the Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), US poet, Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard (1834-54) and European traveler. His best-known works were in a narrative romantic style with repetitive metre, such as ‘The Song of Hiawatha’ (1855).
Longfellow also received honorary degrees at Oxford and Cambridge (1868-69), and a bust of him was placed in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey after his death — the only US poet to be afforded such an honor. [DES-6/03]