The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,299 pages of information about The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,299 pages of information about The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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!

VIII

TALITHA CUMI

JAIRUS at the feet of CHRISTUS. 
O Master!  I entreat thee!  I implore thee! 
My daughter lieth at the point of death;
I pray thee come and lay thy hands upon her,
And she shall live!

CHRISTUS. 
    Who was it touched my garments?

SIMON PETER. 
Thou seest the multitude that throng and press thee,
And sayest thou:  Who touched me?  ’T was not I.

CHRISTUS. 
Some one hath touched my garments; I perceive
That virtue is gone out of me.

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Project Gutenberg
The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.