How I Surrender to the Devil

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Savannah Alhaj How I Surrender to the Devil by Barry Dempster A man's lifestyle reflects the teachings of the devil. At first he is compulsively listening to it and following it thus welcoming the devil into his life, but then he remembers God and he feels guilty. He has a change of heart so he wants to do better, and he wants to make God happier so he turns to God now and ignores the devil. The poem takes a religious form; in specific Christian. The poet starts the poem with fiery image of a man’s life “a backdrop of red-pepper flames.” Everything is coloured in red and surrounded by flames capturing the life of evil and wickedness; “flames” and “potted plants smoking.” Blood is an image of vapour colour of the devil; “Chagall prints bleeding.” The image of “the devil and I exchanging handshakes” suggests the likeness between the man and the devil in sinfulness; “like a hunk of raw steak.” Exchanging handshakes between a man and the devil could be an image of selling your soul to the devil for desires and weakness. Another scene describes the goodness and the purity of the world that even the smallest creature “spiders” “go down on their tiny knees” to pray to God. The poet describes the devil and his man follower as “red and redder” as if saying sinful. “Two roses rubbing up against each other's thorns” implying the harm they both doing to each other. The rose is a symbol of love and desire, however the thorns rubbing each other reflects the harm and the pain. The man comes to his senses and he can feel the jealousy and desire reflected on the devil’s eyes, and he distinguishes the hate coming from his face. The devil is envying the man because he would not fall for the devil’s tricks of tempting. The poet describes the devil’s hate as “scalding pits of hate” as an image of heat and fire. The man goes back to his senses and feels free. He gives his
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