Till many a city there is built,
And many a pleasant shepherd's home.
But when they find the Frowning Babe,
Terror strikes thro' the region wide:
They cry ‘The Babe! the Babe is born!'
And flee away on every side.
For who dare touch the Frowning Form,
His arm is wither'd to its root;
Lions, boars, wolves, all howling flee,
And every tree does shed its fruit.
And none can touch that Frowning Form,
Except it be a Woman Old;
She nails him down upon the rock,
And all is done as I have told.
…And so the cycle begins again. There is a sense of doomed repetition, of a curse hanging over the land.
The Mental Traveller