arrhymic rhymes in Hallowe’en time
under the copse
there is a corpse
behind the horse
there is a ghost
beneath my hats
resides a bat
next to the versed
awaits a curse
so this poor wretch
who loves a witch
shall carry on not
this Hallowe’en night
C L Couch
*(I recently read that trick-or-treating might have been a precursor and rehearsal, of sorts, for Christmas caroling. At this time of year, the Hallowe’en time, tenant farmers’ families went to the hall of the lord landowner—at which they sang and danced and performed illusions and other entertainments, all in the hope of receiving food from the landlord, because all were entering a time of year when there would be no more crops to harvest. At Christmas time, the same visitations happened for the same reason. The fall tenant traveling also timed, intentionally or coincidentally, with the Celtic festival Samhain—spelled with an m, the m pronounced as a w—a celebration of autumn and the food that could be harvested.)
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