The witches' wood

There was a wood, a witches' wood, 
  All the trees therein were pale; 
They bore no branches green and good 
  But as it were a gray nun's veil. 

They talked and chattered in the wind 
  From morning dawn to set of sun, 
Like men and women that have sinned, 
  Whose thousand evil tongues are one. 

Their roots were like the hands of men, 
  Grown hard and brown with clutching gold, 
Their foliage women's tresses when 
  The hair is withered, thin and old. 

There never did a sweet bird sing. 
  For happy love about his nest. 
The clustered bats on evil wing 
  Each hollow trunk and bough possessed. 

And in the midst a pool there lay 
  Of water white, as tho' a scare 
Had frightened off the eye of day 
  And kept the Moon reflected there.

Submitted by John Fowler

Authorship

• by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "The witches' wood", appears in Poems, no. 64, first published 1907 [ author's text checked 1 time]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "The witches' wood", 1908, published 1909 [voice and piano], from the collection English Lyrics, Ninth Set, no. 3. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]

Text added to the website: 2008-06-09.
Last modified: 2014-06-16 10:02:44
Line count: 20
Word count: 135

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