The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

– The Hag by Robert Herrick, published in Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane &
Divine of Robert Herrick Esq., London, 1648.

Baba Yaga as depicted by Ivan Bilibin (1902)

Related Posts:

– “Her Strong Enchantments Failing” by A.E. Houseman

– “The Witch” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

– “Haunted Houses” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Categories: Poetry and Prose

Tags: 17th Century, Baba Yaga, devil, hag, halloween, Halloween poems, Halloween poetry, Ivan Bilibin, National Poetry Month, poetry, Robert Herrick, spooky poetry