A woman with an uncanny, witch-like presence lives alone in a seaside tower. Chestnut flowers drift down around her through the warm dark like snow, and her shadow falls over a guarded shore. Sailors avoid her coast; ships flee, fishermen steer west, and no keel comes home across the pale, enchanted foam. But the speaker does not present her as a monster. She seems quietly forsaken. Thrushes feed by her roof, swallows rest there, gulls and ospreys know her tower, and even wild swans linger because of her loveliness. Light and shadow touch her gently. The mood is dreamy, still, and melancholic—a beautiful isolation, more sad than threatening. The speaker seems drawn to her lonely power and the way nature stays close to her when people will not.
The Sea Witch — Summary
Endlessly fell her chestnut flowers, Faint snow throughout the honeyed dark ; The myrtle spread his boughs to drink Deep draughts of salt from the sea's brink, And like a moon-dial swung her tower's Straight shadow o'er her warded park.
From her calm coasts the galleons fled, The fisher steered him further west, No port was hailed, no keel came home Across that pale, enchanted foam, But by her roof the thrushes fed And wandering swallows found their rest.
The shadows touched her tenderly, The red beam lingered on her dress; The white gull and the osprey knew Her tower across the leagues of blue. The wild swan when he sought the sea Was laggard through her loveliness.