Vervain.... Enchantment.
Reading edition
Vervain was employed by the ancients in various kinds of divinations. They ascribed to it a thousand properties, and, among others, that of reconciling enemies. Whenever the Romans sent their heralds to offer peace or war to nations, one of them always carried a sprig of Vervain. The Druids, both in Gaul and Britain, regarded the Vervain with the same veneration as the misletoe, and offered sacrifices to the earth before they cut this plant in spring, which was a ceremony of great pomp. Though the Druids and their religion have passed away, the Vervain is still the plant of spells and enchantment. In the northern provinces of France, the shepherds gather it with ceremonies and words known only to themselves, and express its juices under certain phases of the moon. They insist that this plant enables them to cure their ailments, and to cast a spell on their daughters and cattle, by which they can make them conform to their wishes.
I’d wake the spell that sleeps within an herb, And witch the lady till I know she’s mine. Peerbold.
Her overpowering presence made you feel It would not be idolatry to kneel. Byron.
Her sacred beauty hath enchanted heaven, And, had she lived before the siege of Troy, Helen, whose beauty summoned Greece to arms, And drew a thousand ships to Tenedos, Had not been named in Homer’s Iliad; Her name had been in every line he wrote. Marlowe.
Not all the charms that superstition gave To plants in lonely forests found, Could work such magic in Love’s doting slave, As the voice which his wishes crowned. Anon.
A voice of laughter—a voice of glee! Among the maidens, who happy as she? By love’s enchantment her thrilling breast Is wildly, witchingly, over-blest: And gushing joys, like the sun in May, Enliven the noon of her bridal-day. MacKellar.
Mysterious plant! whose golden tresses wave With a sad beauty in the dying year, Blooming amid November’s frost severe, Like a pale corpse-light o’er the recent grave. If shepherds tell us true, thy wand hath power, With gracious influence, to avert the harm Of ominous planets. Token, 1831.