C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Curse

From ‘The Curse of Kehama’

I CHARM thy life

From the weapons of strife,

From stone and from wood,

From fire and from flood,

From the serpent’s tooth,

And the beasts of blood;

From Sickness I charm thee,

And Time shall not harm thee:

But Earth, which is mine,

Its fruits shall deny thee;

And Water shall hear me,

And know thee and fly thee;

And the Winds shall not touch thee

When they pass by thee,

And the Dews shall not wet thee

When they fall nigh thee:

And thou shalt seek Death

To release thee, in vain;

Thou shalt live in thy pain,

While Kehama shall reign,

With a fire in thy heart,

And a fire in thy brain;

And Sleep shall obey me,

And visit thee never,

And the Curse shall be on thee

Forever and ever.