Twinkum, twankum, twirlum and twitch -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; Mouse in wainscot, Saint in niche -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; Deadly nightshade flowers in a ditch -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; Long though the shroud, it grows stitch by stitch -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; Wean you weakling before you breech -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; The fattest pig's but a double flitch -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch; Nightjars rattle, owls scritch -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch. Pretty and small, A mere nothing at all, Pinned up sharp in the ghost of a shawl, She'd straddle her down to the kirkyard wall, And mutter and whisper and call, And call. . . . Red blood out and black blood in, My Nannie says I'm a child of sin. How did I choose me my witchcraft kin? Know I as soon as dark's dreams begin Snared is my heart in a nightmare's gin; Never from terror I out may win; So dawn and dusk I pine, peak, thin, Scarcely knowing t'other from which -- My great grandam -- She was a Witch. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO-MORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CLOSING TIME AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO by KAREN SWENSON A DEATH IN THE DESERT by ROBERT BROWNING MEMORY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION: BOOK 3 by MARK AKENSIDE THE METEMPSYCHOSIS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH OUT OF THE VAST by AUGUSTUS WRIGHT BAMBERGER VERSES TO SOME FRIENDS RETURNING FROM THE SEA-SIDE by BERNARD BARTON |