https://youtu.be/WfdMbOIpGG4
Ingram wasn’t a poet by nature perhaps, but he made a great song lyricist. Colorful, but simple and short, unlike most of the poets of the age.
He chose the moment before the Bell Witch first made her appearance to Betsy, when life was sane and magical, in a good sort of way. The truth of the story we’ll never known. We’ll never know whether the horrors inflicted upon Betsy Bell were real, mortal or supernatural. Ingram’s use of the word authenticated is to say the least, suspect.
But something happened in the wilds of Tennessee that still reverberates to this day.
Queen of the Haunted Dell
M.V. Ingram, Authenticated history of the Bell Witch, 1894
‘Mid woodland bowers, grassy dell,
By an enchanted murmuring stream,
Dwelt pretty blue-eyed Betsy Bell,
Sweetly thrilled with love’s young dream.
Life was like the magic spell,
That guides a laughing stream,
Sunbeams glimmering on her fell,
Kissed by lunar’s silvery gleam.
But elfin phantomas cursed the dell,
And sylvan witches all unsean,
As our tale will truely tell,
Wielded sceptre o’re the queen.
