Two Poems

a riddling exchange between a schoolboy and a false knight (Child Ballad)

who is your devil in disguise, child?

what murders the mother.

where are you going?

to the holly-oak forest.

what are you carrying, boy?

books.

that will get you through?

enough.

where are your sheep, and how many belong to you?

as many as have blue tails.

I wish you in a tree, and I will chop it down.

from the tree I wish a ladder, says the boy.

I’ll have your ladder break (knight).

I’ll have the tree grow higher (boy).

boy, you are standing still

still as an oak (says the knight).

(says the boy) still as an oak, fast

as a forest, the faster I stand the slower

you go, the more

you will flower

the less

you will think to chop

down the tree, my

ladder and book

oak and birch

now stand where you are and sing