Spirits in Bondage

by C.S. Lewis

XIII. Satan Speaks

I am the Lord your God: even he that made
     Material things, and all these signs arrayed
     Above you and have set beneath the race
     Of mankind, who forget their Father's face
     And even while they drink my light of day
     Dream of some other gods and disobey
     My warnings, and despise my holy laws,
     Even tho' their sin shall slay them. For which cause,
     Dreams dreamed in vain, a never-filled desire
     And in close flesh a spiritual fire,
     A thirst for good their kind shall not attain,
     A backward cleaving to the beast again.
     A loathing for the life that I have given,
     A haunted, twisted soul for ever riven
     Between their will and mine-such lot I give
     White still in my despite the vermin live.
     They hate my world! Then let that other God
     Come from the outer spaces glory-shod,
     And from this castle I have built on Night
     Steal forth my own thought's children into light,
     If such an one there be. But far away
     He walks the airy fields of endless day,
     And my rebellious sons have called Him long
     And vainly called. My order still is strong
     And like to me nor second none I know.
     Whither the mammoth went this creature too shall go.