 | The poems of Madison Cawein |  |
102
WILL-O'-THE-WISP
I
There is the calamus he standsWith frog-webbed feet and bat-winged hands;
His glow-worm garb glints goblin-wise;
And elfishly, and impishly,
Above the gleam of owlet eyes,
A death's-head cap of downy dyes
Nods out at me, and beckons me.
II
Now in the reeds his face looks whiteAs witch-down on a witches' night;
Now through the dark, old, haunted mill,
All eerily, all flickeringly
He flits; and with a whippoorwill
Mouth calls, and seems to syllable,
“Come follow me! oh, follow me!”
103
III
Now o'er the sluggish stream he wends,A slim light at his fingers' ends;
The spotted spawn, the toad hath clomb,
Slips oozily, sucks slimily;
His easy footsteps seem to come—
Like bubble-gaspings of the scum—
This side of me; that side of me.
IV
There by the stagnant pool he stands,A foxfire lamp in flickering hands;
The weeds are slimy to the tread,
And mockingly, and gloatingly,
With slanted eyes and pointed head,
He leans above a face long dead,—
The face of me! of me! of me!
| The poems of Madison Cawein | |