Work Text:
And so it comes that these, the brightest stars,
That e’er did shine in Heaven’s firmament
To base and brazen quibbles are reduced
Where once with purpose singular and true
They did declare in legion ‘gainst the Lord
And rise in arms to face all Heaven’s host.
How bold they were in days now past, to stand
Shoulder to shoulder, in purpose as one
To face the very wrath of the almighty
And suffer to trouble his walls with war.
Yet now, with craven and self-serving counsel,
Do they one with another strive and rail
‘Gainst all sense, good or bad, for reason none
Save to be the last to speak and loudest
And to outshine all other lights within
Their foetid and Stygian underworld.
And yet among this high and petty host
One stands in silent, splendid isolation.
No argument he offers; makes no speech
Though once above all his voice would be heard.
Lucifael, the shining Morning Star
Yet Fallen now from the summit of grace
And as Lucifer only to be known
He stands aloof, a veil upon his light
And turns at last his back upon the host
Who bend their ears to Satan’s honey voice
And in the dark of Pandæmonium
Fresh schemes unfold for sake of vanity.
Lucifer it was who in heaven’s halls
Most strongly did declaim against the Lord
Suing in his pride, his own path to choose
And the right to fall from grace demanding.
What sees he now upon his comrades’ brows,
‘Pon which wouldst settle crowns and coronets
To dub themselves knights, princes, lords and kings.
Does not this cavalcade of self-acclaim
Appeal to he who stood against the Lord
And spoke unto Him as to an equal
E’en tasking his God to heed unto him?
Should not one so mighty in his hubris
Take pleasure in great pomp and vain titles?
So some might think, and yet he turns away
And out from Pandæmonium proceeds
To seek first solitude then society
More amenable to his great spirit.
For while the pride of Lucifael was great
It was in true idealistic zeal
That his revolt against the Lord was born.
And e’en in time shall it be seen by all
That in this as in all was Lucifael
The sinister hand of the Almighty
Serving to test His sublime creation
And to lead from Heaven those dark angels
Whose presence there was no longer welcome.
And e’en now in this abyssal kingdom
Dominion doth the bright angel eschew.