this one asked for the ballad's style
The Spell
Beneath the light of Spring’s new moon
Which sparkled on the burn
He laid on stone the carven rune
To make her long and yearn.
She rode out on a summer’s day
Drawn by the unknown spell
To ride forth into danger’s way
To seek the faerie well.
Dismounted from her milk-white steed
Dressed in a gown of green
She saw the runes and gave no heed
To where she should have been.
Her maidens all with sleep were filled
They sank down on the grass
Lulled by the babbling of the rill
Which from the fae well passed
She wandered in a dreaming haze
Which led her through the wood
It was an hour, or several days
When in her path he stood.
His smile was cruel and triumph-filled
Yet she went to his arms
All knowledge of her true life killed
By runic faerie charms
She dwelled with him a faery year
A year and then a day
She bore his son, and learned to fear
The games he liked to play.
And when her babe was fully weaned
His smile was cruel and fell;
He dressed her in her gown of greed
And led her to the well.
She searched but could not find the way
Back to her lord and son
She wept, and swore that he would pay
When all knew what he’d done.
But when she left that eldritch wood
Her gown was rags and torn
Her father’s house no longer stood
Her spirits were forlorn
For where her father’s fair demesne
Had once been green and fair
Towering monstrosities now were seen
No farmlands left were there.
*
* *
They
took her to the hospital;
They
bade her tell her tale
They
locked her in the mental ward
As
all the treatments failed.
