Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Hag-hollerin’ Time

Hervey Allen

BLACK JULIUS peered out from the galley door;

Behind Jim Island, lying long and dim,

An infra owl-light tinged the twilight sky

As if a bonfire burned for cherubim.

Dark orange flames came leering through the pines;

And then the moon’s face, struggling with a sneeze,

Along the flat horizon’s level lines

Her nostrils fingered with palmetto trees.

Her platinum wand made water-wrinkles buckle.

Old Julius gave appreciative chuckle—

“It’s jes about hag-hollerin’ time,” he said.

I watched the globous buckeyes in his head

Peer back along the bloody moon-wash dim

To see the fish-tailed water-witches swim.