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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  The Witch in the Glass

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Poems of Home: I. About Children

The Witch in the Glass

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt (1836–1919)

“MY mother says I must not pass

Too near that glass;

She is afraid that I will see

A little witch that looks like me,

With a red, red mouth, to whisper low

The very thing I should not know!”

Alack for all your mother’s care!

A bird of the air,

A wistful wind, or (I suppose

Sent by some hapless boy) a rose

With breath too sweet, will whisper low

The very thing you should not know!