Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.
Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen—and kissed me there.
Credits
Walter de la Mare was a celebrated English poet and writer known for his ability to weave atmosphere, mystery, and the uncanny into deceptively simple verse. Writing in the early twentieth century, he had a particular gift for evoking the threshold between waking and dreaming — a quality felt deeply in "Mistletoe," where the final stanza replaces footsteps and voice with lips unseen.
