 | The banshee and other poems |  |
138
THREE WITCHES.
Methought I saw three sexless things of stormLike Macbèth's witches; creatures of the curse
That broods, the nightmare of the universe,
Over the womb and mortal birth of form;
And, cloudlike in their train, a vampyre swarm
Of hovering ills, each than the other worse,
Lecheries and hates that make the world a hearse
Wherein the infant Life is coffined warm.
Said the first Witch: “I am Lust, the worm that feeds
Upon the buds of love.” The second said:
“I am the tyrant's tyrant, cruel Fear.”
The third: “I am the blight of evil deeds,
The murrain of sick souls;” and in my ear
Whispered a name of paralysing dread.
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