The Little Creature

The Little Creature written by Walter de la Mare

Down-Adown-Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems (1922)

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Twinkum, twankum, twirlum and twitch -
My great grandam - She was a Witch;
Mouse in wainscot, saint in niche -
My great grandam - She was a Witch;
Deadly nightshade flowers in a ditch -
My great grandam - She was a Witch;
Long though the shroud, it grows stitch by stitch -
My great grandam - She was a Witch;
Wean your weakling before you breech -
My great grandam - She was a Witch;
The fattest pig's but a double flitch -
My great grandam - She was a witch;
Nightjars rattle, owls scritch -
My great grandam - She was a Witch.

          Pretty and small,
          A mere nothing at all,
          Pinned up sharp in the ghost of a shawl,
          She'd straddle her down to the kirkyard wall,
          And mutter and whisper and call,
          And call....

Red blood out and black blood in,
My Nannie says I'm a child of sin.
How did I choose me my witchcraft kin?
Know I as soon as dark's dreams begin
Snared is my heart in a nightmare's gin;
Never from terror I out may win;
So dawn and dusk I pine, peak, thin,
Scarcely knowing t'other from which -
My great grandam - She was a Witch.

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