Goblin Market

Table of

Contents

But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste: / "Good folk, I have no coin;
To take were to purloin: / I have no copper in my purse,

I have no silver either, / And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather / Above the rusty heather."
"You have much gold upon your head," / They answer'd all together:
"Buy from us with a golden curl." / She clipp'd a precious golden lock

vvvvvvvv

She dropp'd a tear more rare than pearl, / Then suck'd their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock, / Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flow'd that juice; / She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use? / She suck'd and suck'd and suck'd the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore; / She suck'd until her lips were sore;
Then flung the emptied rinds away / But gather'd up one kernel stone,
And knew not was it night or day / As she turn'd home alone.

vvvvvvvv

Lizzie met her at the gate / Full of wise upbraidings:
"Dear, you should not stay so late, / Twilight is not good for maidens;
Should not loiter in the glen / In the haunts of goblin men.
Do you not remember Jeanie, / How she met them in the moonlight,
Took their gifts both choice and many, / Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
Pluck'd from bowers / Where summer ripens at all hours?
But ever in the noonlight / She pined and pined away;
Sought them by night and day, / Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey;
Then fell with the first snow, / While to this day no grass will grow
Where she lies low: / I planted daisies there a year ago
That never blow. / You should not loiter so."
"Nay, hush," said Laura: / "Nay, hush, my sister:
I ate and ate my fill, / Yet my mouth waters still;
To-morrow night I will / Buy more;" and kiss'd her:
"Have done with sorrow; / I'll bring you plums to-morrow
Fresh on their mother twigs, / Cherries worth getting;
You cannot think what figs / My teeth have met in,
What melons icy-cold / Piled on a dish of gold
Too huge for me to hold, /What peaches with a velvet nap,
Pellucid grapes without one seed: / Odorous indeed must be the mead
Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink / With lilies at the brink,
And sugar-sweet their sap."
vvvvvvvv

Golden head by golden head, / Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other's wings, / They lay down in their curtain'd bed:
Like two blossoms on one stem, / Like two flakes of new-fall'n snow,
Like two wands of ivory / Tipp'd with gold for awful kings.
Moon and stars gaz'd in at them, / Wind sang to them lullaby,
Lumbering owls forbore to fly, / Not a bat flapp'd to and fro
Round their rest: / Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
Lock'd together in one nest.

vvvvvvvv
Early in the morning / When the first cock crow'd his warning,
Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, / Laura rose with Lizzie:
Fetch'd in honey, milk'd the cows, / Air'd and set to rights the house,
Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, / Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
Next churn'd butter, whipp'd up cream, / Fed their poultry, sat and sew'd;
Talk'd as modest maidens should: / Lizzie with an open heart,
Laura in an absent dream, /One content, one sick in part;
One warbling for the mere bright day's delight, /
One longing for the night.
vvvvvvvv

At length slow evening came: / They went with pitchers to the reedy brook;
Lizzie most placid in her look, / Laura most like a leaping flame.
They drew the gurgling water from its deep; / Lizzie pluck'd purple and rich golden flags,
Then turning homeward said: "The sunset flushes / Those furthest loftiest crags;
Come, Laura, not another maiden lags. / No wilful squirrel wags,
The beasts and birds are fast asleep." /But Laura loiter'd still among the rushes
And said the bank was steep.
vvvvvvvv

And said the hour was early still / The dew not fall'n, the wind not chill;
Listening ever, but not catching / The customary cry,
"Come buy, come buy," / With its iterated jingle
Of sugar-baited words: / Not for all her watching
Once discerning even one goblin / Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
Let alone the herds /That used to tramp along the glen,
In groups or single, /Of brisk fruit-merchant men.

BACK Continued Next Page