 | Songs of summer |  |
33
THE GIPSY TOAD.
[BOHEMIA.]
Across the haunted moor I went,
Wrapt in the glooms of discontent:
The weeds were thick, the grass was sere,
Because the gipsy's toad was near.
Wrapt in the glooms of discontent:
The weeds were thick, the grass was sere,
Because the gipsy's toad was near.
It cowered beside the marshy road;
Its eye with devilish cunning glowed:
I stamped, and stamped it in the mud,
Until my feet were red with blood.
Its eye with devilish cunning glowed:
I stamped, and stamped it in the mud,
Until my feet were red with blood.
Then on I went with hurried tramp,
Until I reached the gipsy camp:
Great was the stir and sorrow there,
And the old Queen tore her ragged hair!
Until I reached the gipsy camp:
Great was the stir and sorrow there,
And the old Queen tore her ragged hair!
“What is the matter, old Mother Crawl?”
She answered me not, but raised her shawl:
A trampled body, a mangled head—
Jesu! the gipsy's child was dead!
She answered me not, but raised her shawl:
A trampled body, a mangled head—
Jesu! the gipsy's child was dead!
| Songs of summer | |