I appreciate this effort and, as has been stated, it has a lot of potential.
Yet, while we're "throwing out the baby with the bath water," then why do we have:
Let it go, let it all go down the drain?
This could be taken metaphorically but with the image of a literal bath being the anchor of the poem I can't help but think of modern plumbing. Yet we don't say "don't let the baby go down the drain."
Similarly,
Let it swirl, let it all swirl down the drain—
Let murderous grime be curlicues to gyre
"Gyre" is soooooo "20th century," with the Yeat's association raising a red flag. Seeing how this word choice reinforces the idea of a bathtub drain, rather than the tossing of water, it doesn't add anything realistic while it distracts with the unintended or clumsy literary allusion.
This observation ties in with the other historical aspects mentioned earlier (e.g., witches were not burned in forests).
All this is moot and mute, if the medieval Europeans had drains for their bathtubs. But even if they did, which I seriously doubt, then why toss babies?
The archaic diction (sorry, Nigel, no disrespect!) bothers me. Yet, this poem has a single thought and carries it all the way through even if, as others have observed, correct details are lacking.
Don
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