"The Witch-Bride" (A Poem)

Although the poems were published thirty years apart, John Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci” and William Allingham’s “The Witch-Bride” grapple with the same concept: the seduction of man by an otherworldly force. In the former, the spectral vixen abandons her victim after their brief liaison; however, in the latter, the supernatural being attaches itself to its pray and follows him for all eternity.[1]

A fair witch crept to a young man's side,
And he kiss’d her and took her for his bride.

But a Shape came in at the dead of night,
And fill’d the room with snowy light.

And he saw how in his arms there lay
A thing more frightful than mouth may say.

And he rose in haste, and follow’d the Shape
Till morning crown’d an eastern cape.

And he girded himself, and follow’d still
When sunset sainted the western hill.

But, mocking and thwarting, clung to his side,
Weary day! – the foul Witch-Bride.[2]

Works Referenced

Adamson, Sylvia. “Literary Language.” The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. 4. Ed. Suzanne Romaine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 589-692.

Allingham, William. “The Witch-Bride.” Selected Poems from the Works of William Allingham. Ed. Helen Allingham. London: MacMillan and Company, 1912. 87.
____________________ 
[1] Adamson, 674-675.
[2] Allingham, 87.