Explore "The Seven Devils" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ There is a legend, lost in some old dusty / Tome of the East, -- and who will question it? -- / Concluding ancient wisdom, rather musty, / Wherein much war and wickedness and wit, / Insult and wrath and love and shame are writ: / Wherein is written that, when Mahomet / Fled out of Mecca from the people's wrath, / He met a shadow standing in his path, / A naked horror, blacker than hewn jet.
/ It in one hand held out a flaming jewel, / Wherein fierce colors burnt and blent like eyes / Of seven fires, merciless as cruel: / The horror said, "God cursed them for their lies. / These are the seven devils of the wise, / And I am Satan! " And the prophet saw / How he might punish Mecca for its pride; / And, gazing on the Fiend, "Allah," he cried, / "Let them be free! " His word, like God's, was law.