[Theme music fades in]
Hi, have you taken a deep breath today? Welcome to WNUR News’s poetry segment, where you’ll hear timely poem readings to help you relax, reflect, and reconnect. With Halloween in a few days, this week’s selection of poems tap into the chill of spooky nights.
[Theme music fades out]
Walter de la Mare was born on April 25, 1873 in London. de la Mare was an English poet and novelist best known for his work in children’s literature. His work explores themes of childhood, dreams and the supernatural. This is his 1913 poem, “Some One.”
[ soft rain sound fades in]
Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Someone came knocking;
I’m sure-sure-sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl’s call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.
[ soft rain sound fades out]
That was Walter de la Mare’s “Some One.”
This next poem comes from the famous English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. In Act FOUR, Scene ONE of his tragedy Macbeth, three witches cast a spell around a cauldron. This is “Song of the Witches: ‘Double, double toil and trouble.’”
[ soft rain sound fades in]
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
[ soft rain sound fades out]
That was “Song of the Witches: ‘Double, double toil and trouble’,” by William Shakespeare.
Thank you for listening to this week’s Well-Versed. Have a Happy Halloween!
Evelyn Won, WNUR News.
Theme music by Soul_Serenity_Sounds | Pixabay.
Music by VideoChallengeUSA from Pixabay