Poem by Edith Nesbit

Magic

   WHAT was the spell she wove for me?
      Life was a common useful thing,
         An eligible building site
   To hold a house to shelter me.
      There were no woodlands whispering;
         No unimagined dreams at night
      About that house had folded wing,
   Disordering my life for me.

   I was so safe until she came
      With starry secrets in her eyes,
         And on her lips the word of power.
   —Like to the moon of May she came,
      That makes men mad who were born wise—
         Within her hand the only flower
      Man ever plucked from Paradise;
   So to my half-built house she came.

   She turned my useful plot of land
      Into a garden wild and fair,
         Where stars in garlands hung like flowers:
   A moonlit, lonely, lovely land.
      Dim groves and glimmering fountains there
         Embraced a secret bower of bowers,
      And in its rose-ringed heart we were
   Alone in that enchanted land.

   What was the spell I wove for her,
      Her mad dear magic to undo?
         The red rose dies, the white rose dies,
   The garden spits me forth with her
      On the old suburban road I knew.
         My house is gone, and by my side
      A stranger stands with angry eyes
   And lips that swear I ruined her.

1. Love and Knowledge
2. To One Who Pleaded for Candour in Love
3. A Last Appeal
4. The Touchstone
5. The Stolen God

Hamlin Garland Magic ("Within my hand I hold")

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