Deceived by subtle snares of hell,
Adam, our head, our father, fell;
When Satan, in the serpent hid,
Proposed the fruit that God forbid.

Death was the threatening: death began
To take possession of the man;
His unborn race received the wound,
And heavy curses smote the ground.

But Satan found a worse reward:
Thus saith the vengeance of the Lord:
“Let everlasting hatred be
Betwixt the woman’s seed and thee.

The woman’s seed shall be my Son;
He shall destroy what thou hast done;
Shall break thy head, and only feel
Thy malice raging at His heel.

He spake; and bid four thousand years
Roll on; at length His Son appears;
Angels with joy descend to earth,
And sing the young Redeemer’s birth.

Lo, by the sons of hell He dies;
But as He hung ’twixt earth and skies,
He gave their prince a fatal blow,
And triumphed o’er the powers below.