Dreamers and Other Poems

<p><SPAN name="A_SALEM_MOTHER" id="A_SALEM_MOTHER"></SPAN>A SALEM MOTHER</p> <span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>I</b></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">They whisper at my very gate,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">These clacking gossips every one,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">"We saw them in the wood of late,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Her and the widow's son;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The horses at the forge may wait,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">The wool may go unspun."</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I spread the food he loves the best,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">I light the lamp when day is done,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet still he stays another's guest&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my one son, my son.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">I would it burned in mine own breast</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">The spell he may not shun.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">She hath bewitched him with her eyes.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">(No goodly maid hath eyes as bright.)</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pale in the morn I watch him rise,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">As one who wanders far by night.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The gossips whisper and surmise&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">I hide me from the light.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>II</b></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her hair is yellow as the corn,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Her eyes are bluer than the sky;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Behind the casement yester-morn,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">I watched her passing by.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">My son not yet had broken bread,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet from the table did he rise,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">She said no word nor turned her head,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">What then the spell that bade him stir,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor heeding any word I said,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Put by my hands and follow her.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>III</b></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">He was so strong and wise and good&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Was there no other she might take,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nor other mothers' hearts to break?</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">What though she bade the harvest fail,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">What though she willed the cattle die,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">So my son's soul was spared thereby.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">My cattle fill the pasture-land,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">The ripe fruit thickens on the tree,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">My son, my son is lost to me.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>IV</b></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">They burned a witch in our town,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">On hangman's hill to-day;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And black the ashes drifted down,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ashes black and grey,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not white like those o' martyred folk</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whose souls are clean as they.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">They burned a witch in our town,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Upon a windy hill,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">For that she made the wells sink down</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">And wrought a young man ill,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The smoke rose black against the sky,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">And hangs before it still.</span><br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">They burned a witch in our town,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">And sure they did but right,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>And yet I would the rain could drown</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>That blackened hill from sight,</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>And some great wind might drive that cloud</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>'Twixt God and me this night.</i></span><br/> <br/> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />