Poetry of the Supernatural

by Unknown

"From Ghaisties, Ghoulies, and long-leggity Beasties
and Things that go Bump in the night—
Good Lord, deliver us."

The ballads that follow have all been selected from The Oxford Book of Ballads, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1910.

Alison Gross.

She's turned me into an ugly worm
And gar'd me toddle about the tree.

Clerk Saunders.

The most notable of the ballads of the supernatural, from the dramatic quality of its story and a certain wild pathos in its expression.

"Is there ony room at your head, Saunders,
Is there ony room at your feet?
Or ony room at your side, Saunders,
Where fain, fain I wad sleep?"

The Daemon Lover.

And aye as she turned her round about,
Aye taller he seemed to be;
Until that the tops o' that gallant ship
Nae taller were than he.

King Henry.