Re-discovery

While working on a piece for submission, I had to dig into one of my old high school English textbooks, Themes in World Literature.  In it I found an elusive poem that has been one of my favorites.

I say elusive because I have looked for it on line to use in conjunction with "Young Goodman Brown," but I was never able to find it.  Until I found it in Themes in World Literature.

It's by Heinrich Heine and it's called "I Called the Devil and He Came."

I called the devil and he came;
And then I saw, with a wondering gaze,
He was not hideous, he was not lame,
But a genial man with charming ways.
A man in the very flush of his prime;
Experienced, suave, and in touch with his time.
As a diplomat, his talent is great,
And he speaks wisely of Church and State.
True, he is pale; but it's little wonder,
For Sanskrit and Hegel he's staggering under.
His favorite poet is still Fouque;
As critic he finds that the work is a bother,
So Hecate now, his beloved grandmother,
Has take then task and enjoys it, they say.
My legal studies called forth his laudation;
He too, in his youth, found them quaint recreation.
He said that my friendship could never be
Too dear for him, and bowed to me,
And asked had we not met some place --
Perhaps the ambassador's? And with that sentence
I looked more closely at his face,
And recognized an old acquaintance.


That poem works so well with "Young Goodman Brown" on so many levels that I can't wait to use it in our literary analysis essay this fall!