An Allegorical
Poem in Three Movements
THE ARGUMENT
The Poet,
musing on the torment of envy, conceives it as a fallen spirit, self-consumed
and wandering through the wastes of the soul. Envy laments its curse before the
bright Spirit of Charity, who rebukes and then redeems it. In the end, the
fires of malice are turned to light, and the two ascend together toward the
dawn of Grace.
i. THE VOICE
OF ENVY
Lo, I arise from
caverns of the mind,
Where never dawn hath shone, nor quiet dwelt.
I am the worm that feedeth on the root,
When yet the fruit is green upon the bough;
The canker hid, that drinketh of the sap,
And turneth sweetness into dust and gall.
ii. THE
DIALOGUE OF ENVY AND CHARITY
ENVY
I wander as a shadow ’mid the blest,
A spirit self-consuming, bound in spite.
CHARITY
O child unblest, thou hast not known thy thirst.
It is not others’ plenty that condemns,
But thine own emptiness that maketh pain.
ENVY
I walk among them, yet I cannot rest,
Each joy I see doth wound my heart with fire.
CHARITY
Then yield thy stings; lay down thy fires to rest.
Their heat shall serve the altar, not the pit.
ENVY
Can such as I be turned to light and peace?
CHARITY
Yea, by contrition, by love’s gentle might.
Thy thousand serpents change to threads of light,
And every coil is loosed into a star.
ENVY
What grace is this? I feel the chains unbind,
The weight of many ages melt away.
iii. THE
REDEMPTION OF ENVY
So shall it be
for all who envy’s snare
Have felt, and by contrition are made clean.
For love is stronger than the serpent’s guile,
And mercy keepeth watch where pride is tamed.
A Miltonic riff
Oct 2025
