English poem
Proktophantasmist
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
I tell you, spirits, to your face, I give to spirit-despotism no place; My spirit cannot practise it at all.
(The dance continues)
Naught will succeed, I see, amid such revels; Yet something from a tour I always save, And hope, before my last step to the grave, To overcome the poets and the devils.