Johnson's “The Temptress” features six perfect-rimed, ABAB, stanzas that dramatize the nature of evil in the lives of mankind. The “Old Devil,” when he wants to ensnare a victim, does not appear as the stereotypical symbol “with horns and tail,” but instead transforms himself into some alluring object or act that the potential ensnaree would desire. The old adage, “you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” is well known by that “Old Devil.”
First Stanza: “Old Devil, when you come with horns and tail”
The speaker addresses his nemesis, the “Old Devil,” admitting that the stereotype of his appearance “with horns and tail, / With diabolic grin and crafty leer,” have no affect on him. He can easily say no such a creature. He will not be moved to follow and therefore become a victim of such a grotesque creature.
Second Stanza: “But when you wear a form I know so well”
On the other hand, when the horns and tail are shed and the body that appears before the speaker becomes “[a] form so human, yet so near divine,” he feels himself “fall beneath the magic” of the evil one. The speaker loses his “vantage” and finds himself losing the control he prefers to hold over his actions.
Third Stanza: “Ah! when you take your horns from off your head”
When the evil one approaches the speaker with “soft and fragrant hair” instead of the “horns and tail,” the speaker knows he will probabaly fall and commit acts that he should not. That “dear head” that belongs to the evil one disguised as a beautiful but tempting woman makes the speaker lose control, and he fears “the tangled path [he] tread[s].” When the temptress lays her head “against his face,” he forgets that the “Old Devil” has merely transformed his horns into luscious feminine hair.
Fourth Stanza: “And at what time you change your baleful eyes”
The speaker then claims that when the “Old Devil” transforms his “baleful eye” into “stars that melt into the gloom of night,” the speaker again loses his “courage” which “quickly flies.” The speaker at this point even loosens his disdain for the evil one by calling him “my dear fellow.” The speaker has been transformed himself from openly acknowledging the evil of the “Old Devil” to addressing him as a chum. At this point, the speaker reveals that his winning this fight “is slim.”
Fifth Stanza: “And when, instead of charging down to wreck”
When that “Old Devil” then changes his “red-hot pitchfork” into “a pair of slender arms” and flings them around his neck, the speaker feels himself sinking farther into the muck and “dare[s] not trust the ground on which [he] stand[s].”
Sixth Stanza: ” Whene'er in place of using patent wile“
The speaker finally reveals that when he sees “two crimson lips curved in a smile” instead of the “Old Devil”’s “horrid grin,” he has to throw up his hands and declare “Old Devil, I must really own, you win.” Even though he is back to calling the evil one “Old Devil,” the speaker admits that the temptress has captured him.
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Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
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