Night and storm. LUCIFER, with the Powers of the Air, trying to tear down the Cross. Lucifer. HASTEN! hasten! O ye spirits! From its station drag the ponderous Cross of iron, that to mock us Is uplifted high in air! Voices. O, we cannot! For around it All the Saints and Guardian Angels Throng in legions to protect it; They defeat us everywhere! The Bells. Laudo Deum verum Plebem voco! Congrego clerum! Lucifer. Lower! lower! Hover downward! Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and Clashing, clanging, to the pavement Hurl them from their windy tower! Voices. All thy thunders Here are harmless! For these bells have been anointed, And baptized with holy water! They defy our utmost power.
Author Biography
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride," The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and later, at Harvard College. Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington.
