Forgotten Ground Regained
Woodland Witch
An sonnet in anapaestic tetrameter, employing an atypical rhyme scheme,
It alliterates across the first three beats of each line; moreover, the alliteration is the same in all 14 lines.
In the woodland of winter, bear witness: A frostcoats the webs and the willows. The widow has been —with her windings of wicker, she’s weaving a scenein the womb of the woods. All the wild lies embossed,by the will of her woe. In the woodland tonightthere's a westerly wind, and it withers the fernsas it wends to the weir. When the waters returnto the womb of the woods, all the world turns to white.Of the widow beware: She is weeping. A breezeotherworldly unwinds, from her worship, beneathall the whispering weeds. And it waltzes the wreathof the woman of woe (her bewitchment of treesat the womb of the woods), in a world that must freezelike the webs and the willows — to wilt on the heath.
Copyright © Anthony Etherin, 2023.
First published in Robots of Babylon