Demon - A Poem ( Russian Language Edition )

The subject of this poem, by Mikhail Lermontov, is full of simplicity and grandeur. Satan flying through space recalls the happy time when, as a holy angel, the purest charms and sweetest privileges of heaven were his. Homeless he wanders, weary of spreading sin, and of possessing a power that encounters no opposition. Below he beholds the varied beauties of the Caucasus, its majestic mountains and pellucid rivers, and afar the rich valleys of fair Georgia; yet Nature's sweetest scenes produce no effect on him beyond a feeling of cold envy-all that he sees he hates! At last a beautiful Georgian, by name Tamara, attracts his attention, as amid her handmaids at her father's castle she joyously awaits her princely bridegroom. On beholding her, the Demon is once more conscious of the force of beauty and love. Her bridegroom, at his instigation, is attacked and slain by a band of robbers, while on his way to the nuptials, and Tamara, overcome with grief and harassed by the insidious and passion-inspiring voice of Satan, seeks refuge in a convent. Thither he follows her, and in a powerful dialogue inspires her with compassion for his forlorn hopelessness. In the embrace of the Demon she dies. As an Angel is bearing her soul to heaven, the Evil One intercepts their course, declaring-" She is his;" but the angel repulses him with the reply of mercy that Heaven is open to love. Thus again is he left, alone and hopeless in space, while the contrite soul of his victim is borne onwards to Paradise. The similarity of the subject with that of "Faust," and of the character with that of Lucifer in "Cain," will doubtless strike all at first; but on closer perusal the reader cannot help but discover, in " The Demon" of Lermontov, a character that differs in every way from the Mephistopheles of Goethe and the Lucifer of Byron. The softening effect that love is able to produce for the time being on the impersonation of all evil, is as marvelous in its conception as it is thrilling in the manner in which it is told in the Russian.