"The Death Potion" (A Poem)

From “The Deserted House” and “All Hallows Night” to “The Dead Ship” and “A Rhyme of Death’s Inn,” the occult was a major theme in the poetical works of Lizette Woodworth Reese. In this poem, the author explores the role of the jilted lover, who concocts a death potion for the woman who stole her beloved away. 

 

In Italy, 15—.

 

One drop of this, and she will not know

If she be foul or fair;

One drop, and I may bind him again

With a thread of my golden hair.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)

 

I would that those folk across the street,

In old St. Simon’s there.

Would hush their noise: for they sing so sweet

They make this rare drop seem less rare.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

It is May; my plum trees five

Down in the court below

Look like five little chorister boys

Tiptoe to chant, so white they blow.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

And a butterfly like a violet

Flits through the sun and lights on the sill

Close to my hand. Are the bees about,

Or is it the wind comes down the hill?

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

But what have I to do with the May,

Or any other weather?

Or with five white plum trees? Hate and I,

And I and Hell, be yoked together.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)

 

(One drop is sure to kill.) When she dies,

They will put the cross on her breast,

And get the golden candlesticks out

For her head and feet, and call her blest.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)

 

But she is a thief! Do ye hear me in Heaven?

Her soul shall not come in

To those white souls. She is pitch, not snow.

Saint Simon, Saint Simon, is Theft not sin?

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)

 

For he was mine, and I was his;

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)

Though we had shame, yet had we bliss.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

I fell, but for love, love, love;

And for love, love, love, I swear!

I, for this man and my love,

Would have wiped his feet with my hair!

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

This robber came; she lay in wait;

She sprang upon him unaware;

He thinks to wed her with a ring

To-morrow in St. Simon’s there.

(Hear, Lord Jesus!) 

 

One drop? And she shall have it then;

In a sup of her lover’s wine;

So — old things will come back again,

And I be his, and he be mine!

(Hear, Lord Jesus!)[1]

 

Works Referenced 

 

Reese, Lizette Woodworth. “The Death Potion.” A Handful of Lavender. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mufflin, and Company, 1891. 37-39.

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[1] Reese, 37-39.