Sweden's Laureate: Selected Poems of Verner von Heidenstam/The Witch's Counsel
THE WITCH'S COUNSEL.
You ask: "Pray teach me how to set a trap
Within whose meshes Fortune may be caught."
Sit down again, my child,—'tis lightly taught—
And wait with folded hands across your lap.
Each day the butterfly of Fortune swings
Around us, seeking us on wings of gold.
But who can teach how one may safely hold
The butterfly and never break its wings?
Within whose meshes Fortune may be caught."
Sit down again, my child,—'tis lightly taught—
And wait with folded hands across your lap.
Each day the butterfly of Fortune swings
Around us, seeking us on wings of gold.
But who can teach how one may safely hold
The butterfly and never break its wings?