"Behold, As Goblins Dark As Mien"

By Robert Louis Stevenson

"Behold, as goblins dark as mien"
And portly tyrants dyed with crime
Change, in the transformation scene
At Christmas in a pantomime

Instanter at the prompters cough
The fairy bonnets them and they
Throw their abhorred carbuncles off
And blossom like the flowers in May

So mankind to angelic eyes
So through the scenes of life below
In lifes, ironic disguise
A travesty of man, ye go

But fear not ere the curtain fall
Death in transformation scene
skips forward from her pedestal
Apparent as the fairy queen

And coming free's you in a trice
from all your lendings - lust of fame
Ungainly virtue, ugly vice
Terror Tyranny and shame

So each at last himself for good
In that the dear country lays him down
At last believed and understood
And pure in feature and renown.