I Saw Three Witches/In Vain [DE LA MARE poems set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2020-07-07

I Saw Three Witches (Walter de la Mare)

Am     
I saw three witches
F/D
     That bowed down like barley,
Am G - Am
     And straddled their brooms 'neath a louring sky,
Dm7
            And, mounting a storm-cloud,
E7
            Aloft on its margin,
Am G -Am
     Stood black in the silver as up they did fly.

F Am 
 I saw three witches
F Am           
            That mocked the poor sparrows
F G Am
     They carried in cages of wicker along,
Bb
            Till a hawk from his eyrie
Am
            Swooped down like an arrow,
E F G Am
     Smote on the cages, and ended their song.

            I saw three witches
            That sailed in a shallop,
     All turning their heads with a snickering smile,
            Till a bank of green osiers
            Concealed their grim faces,
     Though I heard them lamenting for many a mile.

            I saw three witches
            Asleep in a valley,
     Their heads in a row, like stones in a flood,
            Till the moon, creeping upward,
            Looked white through the valley,
     And turned them to bushes in bright scarlet bud.

In Vain

D A G
I knocked upon thy door ajar,
D A Em
While yet the woods with buds were grey;
D A G
Nought but a little child I heard
D A G A
     Warbling at break of day.

Em D Em D
I knocked when June had lured her rose
C G Am
To mask the sharpness of its thorn;
Em D Em D
Knocked yet again, heard only yet
F G Am
     Thee singing of the morn.

The frail convolvulus had wreathed
Its cup, but the faint flush of eve
Lingered upon thy Western wall;
     Thou hadst no word to give.

Once yet I came; the winter stars
Above thy house wheeled wildly bright;
Footsore I stood before thy door - 

     Wide open into night.


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