“With hooded heads bent ’neath the broad green shade, And hands laid flat on each knee, They sat, as around the death-nettle’s stem Its beldame-shaped bloom you may see. _Tack-a-rack, tangle tang, twangle tee!_ Woods and broods, Birds and herds, Eggs and curds, Osiers, rosiers,— _Tangle dee!_ “Now the witches so white they worked a charm For the life of my mother and me, And said in the woodlands we ever should dwell, From man’s knavish fingers free. _Tangle fangle, jangle hangle, wrangle see!_ Guns and runs, Hops and pops, Nettings, frettings, Pools and fools— _Dangle dee!_ “Then from hedges and ditches, these old lady-witches, Took bird-weed and rag-weed, and spear-grass for me, And they wove me a bower, ’gainst the snow-storm or shower, In a dry old hollow beech tree. _Tangle dangle, suns and funs, twangle tee!_ Sticks and tricks, Light and sprites, Moons, festoons, Glooms, mushrooms, _Tangle dee!_ “My nest-home inside, is dark, warm, and soft As the sable-hair’d breast of a panting bee; And never in my life will I have an elfin wife, Till the prettiest comes to court me. _Twangle tangle, kisses blisses, tangle tee!_ Courts and sports, Eyes and sighs, Peeps and leaps, Hands and bands, Huts and nuts— _Twangle twee!_ Ivy wreaths, Flowering heaths, Jays and fays, Owls and fogs, Bats and frogs, Holes and moles, Music sound Under ground— _Twangle dee!_ Twining, shining, Dances, prances, Berries, cherries, Sorrels, laurels, Reed-pipe, seed ripe, Burrows, furrows, Habits, rabbits, Paths and crosses, Plots and mosses, Hares and stags, Dwarfs and hags, Shrubs all burry, Creatures furry, Wren and titmouse, Wasp and woodlouse— _Twangle tee!_ Races, graces, Woodland faces, Quaint grimaces, Silver gushes, Tall bull-rushes, Rambles, scrambles, Bogs and brambles,