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Will-O'-The-Wisp

Topics: classic

I. There in the calamus he stands With frog-webbed feet and bat-winged hands; His glow-worm garb glints goblin-wise;     And elfishly, and elfishly, Above the gleam of owlet eyes, A death's-moth cap of downy dyes     Nods out at me, nods out at me. II. Now in the reeds his face looks white As witch-down on a witches' night; Now through the dark old haunted mill,     So eerily, so eerily, He flits; and with a whippoorwill Mouth calls, and seems to syllable,     "Come follow me! come follow me!" III. Now o'er the sluggish stream he wends, A slim light at his finger-ends; The spotted spawn, the toad hath clomb,     Slips oozily, slips oozily; His easy footsteps seem to come - Like bubble-gaspings of the scum -     Now near to me, now near to me. IV. There by the stagnant pool he stands, A fox-fire lamp in flickering hands; The weeds are slimy to the tread,     And mockingly, and mockingly, With slanted eyes and eldritch head He leans above a face long dead, -     The face of me! the face of me!

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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"I saw the daughters of the ocean dance     With wi..."

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