Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Changeling
By John Greenleaf Whittier (18071892)F
They needed not to search,
Who saw young Anna Favor
Come walking into church,—
At set of harvest-day,
The frolic of the blackbirds,
The sweetness of the hay.
The saddest two-years bride,
She scowls in the face of her husband,
And spurns her child aside.
For there the child shall lie,
Till the black witch comes to fetch her,
And both up chimney fly.
It ’s never my own,” she said;
“The witches have stolen my Anna,
And left me an imp instead.
“She ’ll come when she hears it crying,
In the shape of an owl or bat,
And she ’ll bring us our darling Anna
In place of her screeching brat.”
Laid his hand upon her head:
“Thy sorrow is great, O woman!
I sorrow with thee,” he said.
And never but one sure way
Leads out to the light beyond it:
My poor wife, let us pray.”
“Thy daughter is weak and blind;
Let her sight come back, and clothe her
Once more in her right mind.”
Then into the face of its mother
The baby looked up and smiled;
And the cloud of her soul was lifted,
And she knew her little child.
Made the wan face almost fair,
Lit the blue eyes’ patient wonder,
And the rings of pale gold hair.
She kissed it on cheek and chin,
And she bared her snow-white bosom
To the lips so pale and thin.
Was the maid who blushed and smiled,
But fairer to Ezra Dalton
Looked the mother of his child.
He stooped to her worn young face,
And the nursing child and the mother
He folded in one embrace.
“Blessed be God!” she said;
“For I see, who once was blinded,—
I live, who once was dead.
As thou lovest thy own soul!
Woe ’s me, if my wicked fancies
Be the death of Goody Cole!”
And into the night rode he,—
Now through the great black woodland
Now by the white-beached sea.
He came to the ferry wide,
And thrice he called to the boatman
Asleep on the other side.
He swam to Newbury town,
And he called up Justice Sewall
In his nightcap and his gown.
(Upon whose soul be peace!)
Set his name to the jailer’s warrant
For Goodwife Cole’s release.
Went sounding like a flail;
And Goody Cole at cockcrow
Came forth from Ipswich jail.