The Witch

I HAVE walked a great while over the snow, 

And I am not tall nor strong. 

My clothes are wet, and my teeth are set, 

And the way was hard and long. 

I have wandered over the fruitful earth, 

But I never came here before. 

Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door! 

  

The cutting wind is a cruel foe. 

I dare not stand in the blast. 

My hands are stone, and my voice a groan, 

And the worst of death is past. 

I am but a little maiden still, 

My little white feet are sore. 

Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door! 

  

Her voice was the voice that women have, 

Who plead for their heart's desire. 

She came—she came—and the quivering flame 

Sunk and died in the fire. 

It never was lit again on my hearth 

Since I hurried across the floor, 

To lift her over the threshold, and let her in at the door.

© Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. All rights reserved

Brief Bio: Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (23 September 1861 – 25 August 1907) was a British novelist and poet who also wrote essays and reviews. She taught at the London Working Women's College for twelve years from 1895 to 1907. She wrote poetry under the pseudonym Anodos, taken from George MacDonald; other influences on her were Richard Watson Dixon and Christina Rossetti. Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, described her poems as 'wonderously beautiful… but mystical rather and enigmatic'.