This poem tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
To earn his cream-bowl duly set.
In a corner of the bedroom is a great big curtain,
Someone lives behind it, but I don’t know who.
‘” A new mantle, and a new hood;
Poor Brownie! ye’ll ne’er do mair guid!”
“A’ the luck o’ Liethin Ha’
Gangs wi’ me to Bodsbeck Ha’! “
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery?
Destruction on you, you nasty beast, let me home.
I have a ten-penny piece in my pocket for my mother,
and she wants snuff.
November-day is sacred to the Pooka.
It is hard to realize that wild, staring phantom
grown sleek and civil, no more a knave.
Depression is boring, I think,
and I would do better to make
some soup and light up the cave.
Henderson, L. (2013) Folk belief and Scottish traditional literatures. In: Dunnigan, and Gilbert, S. (eds.) The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Traditional Literatures.
Milne, A.A. “Brownie.” https://www.poeticous.com/a-a-milne/brownie?locale=en. Poeticious INC. 2021.
Milton, John. “L’Allegro.” Poetry Foundation.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44731/lallegro .2021.
Sexton, Anne. “The Fury of Rainstorms.” 7 Poems that Teach Us About Mental Health. Nicholas, Kat., ed. September 5, 2020.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/full.html.
Yeats, William Butler. Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.
Project Gutenberg. https://library.um.edu.mo/ebooks/b31956439.pdf
October 28, 2020.
