Satan Unrepentant

by Clark Ashton Smith


	Lost from those archangelic thrones that star,
	Fadeless and fixed, heaven's light of azure bliss;
	Forbanned of all His splendor and depressed
	Beyond the birth of the first sun, and lower
	Than the last star's decline, I still endure,
	Abased, majestic, fallen, beautiful,
	And unregretful in the doubted dark,
	Throneless, that greatens chaos-ward, albeit
	From chanting stars that throng the nave of night
	Lost echoes wander here, and of His praise
	With ringing moons for cymbals dinned afar,
	And shouted from the flaming mouths of suns.

	The shadows of impalpable blank deeps--
	Deep upon deep accumulate -- close down,
	Around my head concentered, while above,
	In the lit, loftier blue, star after star
	Spins endless orbits betwixt me and heaven;
	And at my feet mysterious Chaos breaks,
	Abrupt, immeasurable. Round His throne
	Throbs now the rhythmic resonance of suns,
	Incessant, perfect, music infinite:
	I, throneless, hear the discords of the dark,
	And roar of ruin uncreate, than which
	Some vast cacophony of dragons, heard
	In wasted worlds, were purer melody.

	The universe His tyranny constrains
	Turns on: in old and consummated gulfs
	The stars that wield His judgement wait at hand,
	And in new deeps Apocalyptic suns
	Prepare His corning: lo, His mighty whim
	To rear and mar, goes forth enormously
	In nights and constellations! Darkness hears
	Enragèd suns that bellow down the deep
	God's ravenous and insatiable will;
	And He is strong with change, and rideth forth
	In whirlwind clothed, with thunders and with doom
	To the red stars: God's throne is reared of change;
	Its myriad and successive hands support
	Like music His omnipotence, that fails
	If mercy or if justice interrupt
	The sequence of that tyranny, begun
	Upon injustice, and doomed evermore
	To stand thereby.

	I, who with will not less
	Than His, but lesser strength, opposed to Him
	This unsubmissive brow and lifted mind,
	He holds remote in nullity and night
	Doubtful between old Chaos and the deeps
	Betrayed by Time to vassalage. Methinks
	All tyrants fear whom they may not destroy,
	And I, that am of essence one with His,
	Though less in measure, He may not destroy,
	And but withstands in gulfs of dark suspense,
	A secret dread for ever: for God knows
	This quiet will irrevocably set
	Against His own, and this my prime revolt
	Yet stubborn, and confirmed eternally.
	And with the hatred born of fear, and fed
	Ever thereby, God hates me, and His gaze
	Sees the bright menace of mine eyes afar
	Through midnight, and the innumerable blaze
	Of servile suns: lo, strong in tyranny,
	The despot trembles that I stand opposed!
	For fain am I to hush the anguished cries
	Of Substance, broken on the racks of change,
	Of Matter tortured into life; and God,
	Knowing this, dreads evermore some huge mishap--
	That in the vigils of Omnipotence,
	Once careless, I shall enter heaven, or He,
	Himself, with weight of some unwonted act,
	Thoughtless perturb His balanced tyranny,
	To mine advance of watchful aspiration.

	With rumored thunder and enormous groan
	(Burden of sound that heavens overborne
	Let slip from deep to deep, even to this
	Where climb the huge cacophonies of Chaos)
	God's universe moves on. Confirmed in pride,
	In patient majesty serene and strong,
	I wait the dreamt, inevitable hour
	Fulfilled of orbits ultimate, when God,
	Whether through His mischance or mine own deed,
	Or rise of other and extremer Strength,
	Shall vanish, and the lightened universe
	No more remember Him than Silence does
	An ancient thunder. I know not if these,
	Mine all-indomitable eyes, shall see
	A maimed and dwindled Godhead cast among
	The stars of His creating, and beneath
	The unnumbered rush of swift and shining feet
	Trodden into night; or mark the fiery breath
	Of His infuriate suns blaze forth upon
	And scorch that coarsened Essence; or His flame,
	A mightier comet, roar and redden down,
	Portentous unto Chaos. I but wait,
	In strong majestic patience equable,
	That hour of consummation and of doom,
	Of justice, and rebellion justified.