The Witch

When I was a girl by Nilus stream I watched the desert stars arise; My lover, he who dreamed the Sphinx, Learned all his dreaming from my eyes.

I bore in Greece a burning name, And I have been in Italy Madonna to a painter-lad, And mistress to a Medici.

And have you heard (and I have heard) Of puzzled men with decorous mien, Who judged--The wench knows far too much-- And hanged her on the Salem green?