MASTERPIECE #3549

/// Margaret at the Fountain, beguiled,
learning that her friend’s having a child.
She would once have reviled
an unwed girl gone wild,
but by Faust Margarete’s been defiled.

/// Using foul Mephistopheles’ aid,
Faust seduced and corrupted this maid.
Margarete, (known as Gretchen),
suffered due to Faust’s letchin’
and a terrible price would be paid.

/// Like her friend Barbara, Gretchen’s the same.
She’s unmarried and pregnant— for shame!
Soon the death of her mother
and Faust kills Gretchen’s brother;
The girl bears a great deal of the blame.

/// Crazed, she murders her babe in despair.
Her imprisonment only seems fair.
They condemn Margarete.
After death, Hades heat?
No… to Heaven, she somehow goes there!

/// Meanwhile Faust, for his “Woman Eternal,”
felt a longing that wasn’t paternal.
A sly demon medieval
tempted him to do evil
and a future abode that’s infernal.