Photo Narrative: The Woods at Night

The Woods at Night

The wood is full of shining eyes,

The wood is full of creeping feet,

The wood is full of tiny cries;

You must not go to the wood at night!

I met a man with eyes of glass...

And a stick that hissed like a summer snake

The wood is full of shining eyes,

The wood is full of creeping feet

He made me a penny out of a stone

But I saw that his eyes were turning to fire

I watched the nails grow on his wriggling hand

And I said my prayers all out in a rush

And found myself safe on my father's land.

This photo narrative is a loose illustration of Henry Treece’s poem, The Magic Wood, which I first heard in song as performed by Joan Baez on her 1968 album Baptism. In the poem, a person (likely a child) has an adventure at night in a magical forest in which he meets a mysterious man who performs acts of magic and shows him marvels. Later, after the man displays frightening powers, the child escapes and finds himself back in familiar, safe surroundings. I interpret this poem as a child’s dream (or maybe nightmare) about supernatural events in a woodland setting. Eventually realizing it is a dream, a child would wake up. I was drawn to the poem for this project because of its dark imagery and use of magic (such as a stone turned into a coin or a stick like a snake). The poem’s imagery suggests elements of magic and the supernatural which could be viewed as part of a dream.

Some of the ideas and even the composition of the individual pictures were inspired by scenes in popular movies. The use of the roots in the image for “The wood is full of creeping feet” was inspired by the scene in the Fellowship of The Rings (2003) in which the four hobbits hid beneath tree roots from the fearsome Ringwraith. Also the magic elements and my interpretation of the poem as a dream were inspired by The Wizard of Oz (1939).

In my interpretation, I see the scary imagery as symbolic of a nightmare. In the context of a dream, the line “…found myself safe on my fathers land” could symbolize waking up, realizing that one is safe because what was experienced was all part of a dream. The last two pictures, the family cat in front of the gate which I included as an afterward, are symbolic of morning and waking up back in the real world. Yet, some little echo of the dream remains (the face in the cat’s eye). The images in this photo narrative represent not only Treece’s poem, but my interpretation of the poem’s dreamlike qualities.

For reference, and for those who wish to know, I have included the full poem below.

THE MAGIC WOOD
Henry Treece

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!

I met a man with eyes of glass
And a finger as curled as the wrigglin worm
And hair as red as rotting leaves
And a stick that hissed like a summer snake

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!

He sang me a song in backwards words
And drew me a dragon in the air
I saw his teeth through the back of his head
And a rat's eyes winking from his hair.

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!

He made me a penny out of a stone
And showed me the way to catch a lark
With a straw and a nut and a whispered word
And a penn'orth of ginger wrapped up in a leaf

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!

He asked me my name and where I lived
I told him a name from my Book of Tales
He asked me to come with him into the wood
And dance with the kings from under the hills

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!

But I saw that his eyes were turning to fire
I watched the nails grow on his wriggling hand
And I said my prayers all in a rush
And found myself safe on my father's land.

The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries;
You must not go to the wood at night!