Brookland Road

“Marklake Witches”
in Rewards and Fairies

I was very well pleased with what I knowed,
  I reckoned myself no fool –
Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road,
  That turned me back to school.   
        
        Low down-low down!
       Where the liddle green lanterns shine –
       O maids, I've done with 'ee all but one,
       And she can never be mine! 

'Twas right in the middest of a hot June night,
  With thunder duntin' round,
And I see her face by the fairy-light
  That beats from off the ground.

She only smiled and she never spoke,
  She smiled and went away;
But when she'd gone my heart was broke
   And my wits was clean astray.

O, stop your ringing and let me be –
  Let be, O Brookland bells!
You'll ring Old Goodman out of the sea,
  Before I wed one else!

Old Goodman's Farm is rank sea-sand,
  And was this thousand year;
But it shall turn to rich plough-land
  Before I change my dear.

O, Fairfield Church is water-bound
  From autumn to the spring;
But it shall turn to high hill-ground
  Before my bells do ring.

O, leave me walk on Brookland Road,
  In the thunder and warm rain –
O, leave me look where my love goed,
  And p'raps I'll see her again!

        Low down – low down!
        Where the liddle green lanterns shine –
        O maids, I've done with 'ee all but one,
       And she can never be mine!  

Choose another poem