browngirl

So the lovely Poetry Meme is going around ("When you see this, post some poetry.") I thought a bit about which poem to post (and nearly dug out my old poetry notebooks from my teenage years) but decided via a thought process nearly as convoluted as the MBTA itinerary Mr. Joshlet is reciting to me while I try to write this, to post Tam Lin.

Tam Lin version X by Abigail Acland.

Translated into ballad form, the tale goes something like this:
I forbid all young girls
Who have golden hair
To travel down to Carterhaugh
For young Tam Lin is there

From all that pass through Carterhaugh
He will take a fee
Their rings or their green mantles
Or their virginity

Janet was sitting by her window
Sewing a lovely seam
And wished to be in Caterhaugh
To walk the woods so green

She tucked up her skirt of green
And she tied back her hair
And she left for Carterhaugh
In great haste to get there

She had just pulled a single rose
She'd only taken one
When suddenly Tam Lin appeared
To protest what she'd done

"Why do you pluck the red red rose
And why do you harm the tree
And why have you come to Carterhaugh
Without first asking me?"

"I have the right to come to Caterhaugh
The rights are mine by birth
So I will come to Carterhaugh
And not ask your leave first."

He put his arm around her waist
And they lay on the ground
And what they did next I couldn't say
The leaves were all around

Janet went to her father's house
And all who saw believed
She was now looking pale and green
They feared she had conceived.

"Well I have had a lover
And now I am with child.
It was not with any man here
But a fairie in the wild"

She tucked up her skirt of green
And she tied back her hair
And she left for Carterhaugh
In much haste to get there

"Why have you come to Carterhaugh
Past the fields of heather
And will you kill the lovely babe
That we have made together?"

"You must tell me now, Tam Lin,
Tell the truth to my face,
Are you a mortal man
And can you leave this place?"

"I am a mortal man
And of human flesh and blood,
Human by my birth,
And human in my love.

"I used to go out hunting
But I fell from my horse one day.
The Queen of Fairies captured me
And in their land I must stay.

"The faerie land is a pleasant place
But there's a darker side as well.
At the end of every seven years
They make a sacrifice to hell.

"I am so young and handsome
I fear that they'll choose me
To be the one to pay the price
Unless I can get free.

"Tonight is Halloween
And the faeries will be in sight
If you wait for them at Mile's cross.
Please come for me tonight.

"Take a hold of me when I pass by.
Hold me tight to you.
Promise me you won't let go
No matter what they do.

"They'll turn me into a frightening beast,
And things to give alarm,
But underneath I'm your own love still
And I will not do you harm.

"They'll turn me to a lion.
They'll turn me into a snake.
They'll turn me into a burning thing,
All to get your grip to break.

"When I am a man again
Put your green cloak over me.
I'll be as naked as a newborn child
But love, I will be free."

She tucked up her skirt of green
And she tied back her hair
And she left for Mile's Cross
In great haste to get there.

The faerie horses came riding by
In the middle of the night
And some were black and some were brown
But Tam Lin's was milk-white.

She pulled him down from off his horse
With her arms around his shape.
The faerie court gave an angry yell
"Tam Lin is trying to escape!"

They transformed him into frighting beasts
And into things to give alarm
But she held on tight and feared him not
And he didn't do her harm.

At last he was himself again
So she wrapped him in her cloak.
She was rejoicing in her victory
When the Queen of Faeries spoke.

"If I had know, Tam Lin," she says
"that you were up to no good
I'd have taken out your green eyes
and put in eyes of wood."

"If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"you would have always been alone!
For I'd have taken out your mortal heart
And put in a heart of stone."