If you read The New York Times last Sunday, it was hard to miss the fact that Stacy Schiff has a new book coming out. The Witches: Salem, 1692 (Little, Brown) published Tuesday, just in time for Halloween, “delivers an almost novelistic, thrillerlike narrative of those manic nine months,” according to Alexandra Alter.
This period in history has never interested me too much, but after reading the reviews, I’ve added this book to my “to be listened to” list. (Have to save my precious reading time for fiction and poetry!) So imagine my surprise when I found this a few days later as I was reading from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson:
1583
Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day—
I love Dickinson’s sly use of the word “hung” and how she alludes to Mother Nature, that most mysterious witch of all.
![Illustration for "The Green Forest Fairy Book" by Loretta Ellen Brady, By Alice B. Preston, 1920 (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35458) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/it_was_the_gayest_company_one_ever_could_imagine_as_they_marched_along.jpg)
Happy Halloween, everyone! Be sure to visit Jone at Check It Out for the Poetry Friday Round Up.
Reading to the Core 
Woah, that Emily sure had a way with words. What at first looks simple packs a heavy punch. Happy Halloween.
LikeLike
She had so much up her sleeve, that Emily! As Margaret said, simple at first glance, but then….
LikeLike
I’m so glad you discovered this, Catherine. New to me & it is bewitching! Love that illustration, too.
LikeLike
Terrific find, Catherine! I saved it for re-reading. Thanks! 🙂
LikeLike
Wonderful poem from Emily–and not one I’ve read before. Thanks for sharing it!
LikeLike
I’ve already put that book on Hold @ the Library! Great minds and all that! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that poem, and all it doesn’t say but hints. Leaves so much scope for imagination.
LikeLike
I am a big Dickinson fan, but I have never read that poem until today. Thanks for sharing it!
LikeLike
I prefer your reading of nature as the witchcraft. We voted yesterday, so my mind went straight to politics and other devious inventions of humankind…
LikeLike