GOBLIN MARKET

And there it stands to this very day.

And I must not omit to say

That in Transylvania there's a tribe

Of alien people that ascribe

The outlandish ways and dress

On which their neighbours lay such stress,

To their fathers and mothers having risen

Out of some subterraneous prison

Into which they were trepanned

Long time ago in a mighty band 10

Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land.

But how or why, they don't understand.

So, Willy, let you and me be wipers
Of scores out with all men—especially pipers :
And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice.
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!

ROBERT BROWNING

GOBLIN MARKET
MORNING and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry :
" Gome buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy :
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpecked cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries ;—