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SATAN UNREPENTANT
Enragèd suns that bellow down the deepGod's ravenous and insatiable will;And He is strong with change, and rideth forthIn whirlwind clothed, with thunders and with doom,To the red stars: God's throne is reared of change;Its myriad and successive hands supportLike music His omnipotence, that failsIf mercy or if justice interruptThe sequence of that tyranny, begunUpon injustice, and doomed evermoreTo stand thereby.
I, who with will not lessThan His, but lesser strength, opposed to HimThis unsubmissive brow and lifted mind,He holds remote, in nullity and nightDoubtful between old Chaos and the deepsBetrayed by Time to vassalage. MethinksAll tyrants fear whom they may not destroy,And I, that am of essence one with His,Though less in measure, He may not destroy,And but withstands in gulfs of dark suspense,A secret dread forever: For God knowsThis quiet will irrevocably setAgainst His own, and this mine old revoltYet stubborn, and confirmed eternally.And with the hatred born of fear, and fedEver thereby, God hates me, and His gazeSees the bright menace of mine eyes afar,Through midnight, and the innumerable blazeOf servile suns: Lo, strong in tyranny,The despot trembles that I stand opposed!For fain am I to hush the anguished criesOf Substance, broken on the racks of change,Of Matter tortured into life; and God,Knowing this, dreads evermore some huge mishap—That in the vigils of Omnipotence,Once careless, I shall enter heaven, or He,Himself, with weight of some unwonted act,
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