Men say, that in this midnight hour, The disembodied have power To wander as it liketh them, By wizard oak and fairy stream,— Through still and solemn places, And by old walls and tombs, to dream, With pale, cold, mournful faces....

The speaker reports a piece of folk belief: at midnight—traditionally the “witching hour”—spirits are thought to roam freely. Motherwell’s imagery blends the supernatural with a specifically Romantic landscape (“wizard oak,” “fairy stream”) and with antiquarian, sepulchral settings (“old walls and tombs”). The tone is hushed and ceremonial, emphasizing stillness and pallor rather than terror, so the supernatural becomes a vehicle for melancholy meditation on death and memory. The passage also reflects Motherwell’s broader interest in ballad tradition and popular superstition, treating communal sayings (“Men say…”) as poetic material.