The Poetry Corner

Bewitched

By Walter De La Mare

I have heard a lady this night, Lissom and jimp and slim, Calling me - calling me over the heather, 'Neath the beech boughs dusk and dim. I have followed a lady this night, Followed her far and lone, Fox and adder and weasel know The ways that we have gone. I sit at my supper 'mid honest faces, And crumble my crust and say Nought in the long-drawn drawl of the voices Talking the hours away. I'll go to my chamber under the gable, And the moon will lift her light In at my lattice from over the moorland Hollow and still and bright. And I know she will shine on a lady of witchcraft, Gladness and grief to see, Who has taken my heart with her nimble fingers, Calls in my dreams to me: Who has led me a dance by dell and dingle My human soul to win, Made me a changeling to my own, own mother, A stranger to my kin.