| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Old Wives’ Tale | | By Arthur Davison Ficke |
| | | I SAW my grandmother’s shadow on the wall | |
| In firelight; it danced with queer grimaces | |
| As if her serious soul were making faces | |
| At me or life or God or at us all. | |
| And I, an urchin lying at her feet, | 5 |
| Then caught my first glimpse of the secret powers | |
| That stir beneath this universe of ours, | |
| Making a witches’ carnival when they meet. | |
| Across the firelit dusk my sensitive mood | |
| Dreamed out to mingle with the waifs of Time | 10 |
| Whose unsolved stories haunt the poets’ rhyme | |
| And in dark streets of ancient cities brood— | |
| Like sudden ghosts rising above the grime | |
| With beauty and with terror that chills the blood. | | | | |
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