All Hallow-e'en - Slingsby

All Hallow-e’en
by Jonathan Freke Slingsby
pseudonym of John Francis Waller (1810-1894)

I.
October is dying;
Chill winds are sighing
Sadly the bare, sapless branches between;
Night, from her dark wings,
Hoar, frost, and mist flings
Over the brown fields on Allhallow-E’en.

II.
Shoot bolt and bar, now,
Leave no door a-jar, now,
Draw o’er the casement the curtain’s thick screen;
Heap logs on the fire till
The flame burns higher still,
And roars up the chimney on Allhallow-E’en.

III.
Circle the hearth-stone
Each friend and dear one,
We’ll sit where of old our forefathers have been;
Bring chalice and flagon,
The night shall not lag on
‘Mid the time-honoured pastimes of Allhallow-E’en.

IV.
The cross lightly turns,
The flame brightly burns
Of the candles, the rosy red apples between;
Then come boys and girls,
Look sharp as it twirls,
And play at snap-apple on Allhallow-E’en.

V.
With eye quick and steady,
And mouth gaping ready,
A youth makes a snap, like a wolf, at the prize:
The fruit he but touches,
It whirls from his clutches,
While the flaring light smutches his jaws and his eyes.

VI.
Thus oft, while intent on
Some joy that we’re bent on.
We heedlessly rush the fair treasure to clasp;
But a soil or a burn
Is our only return,
While all that we toiled for has fled our grasp.

VII.
Now a maiden, more wily,
Comes quiet and slily,
And waits till the cross is just changing its swing;
Then quickly she dips in
Her sweet little lips in,
And bears off the apple clear out of the ring.

VIII.
Ah! trust me that no man
Can cope with a woman
In gaining her end, be it apple or heart;
Since first Mother Eve, sir,
Took fruit without leave, sir,
The fair sex have never forgotten the art.

IX.
Place the nuts in the fire now,
All you who desire now
To learn your fate, as they crackle and burn.
Come false loves and true loves,
We’ll soon find out who loves,
Who’s fickle and faithless, who loves you in turn.

X.
Oh, how your hearts flutter
As the nuts crack and sputter,
Or steadily burning together they’re seen;
What trembling and starting,
As they’re faithlessly darting
From their mates on the bar, upon Allhallow-E’en.

XI.
There goes a bright shilling,
Let’s see who is willing
In the water to dive, where ‘tis shining within?
Then fair necks are stripping,
And bright faces dipping,
And silken hair dripping, on Allhallow-E’en.

XII.
There’s a crone in the corner,
You’d better not scorn her;
No riddle of fate for her skill is too hard.
See that young couple near her,
Who breathlessly hear her
Their fortunes expound, as she turns up each card.

XIII.
Clear a space in the middle!
For bagpipe and fiddle
Invite men and maidens to jig and to reel;
And footing it featly,
The lasses trip neatly,
And the young men cut capers with toe and with heel.

XIV.
There are charms for the bold heart,
The glass for the old heart,
To-night let no cold heart amongst us be seen;
Let strong waters and ale flow,
The song and the tale go
Around our bright hearth, upon Allhallow-E’en.

XV.
So gaily pass over
The last of October,
Perhaps, we may ne’er so enjoy it again;
‘Twill be sweet to remember
When wake, next November,
Our happy hearts’ muster on Allhallow-E’en.

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From the story Snap-Apple Night - Dublin University Magazine, 1850