The Fairy Child

From the low white walls and the church's steeple,
From our little fields under grass or grain,
I'm gone away to the fairy people
I shall not come to the town again.

You may see a girl with my face and tresses,
You may see one come to my mother's door
Who may speak my words and may wear my dresses.
She will not be I, for I come no more.

I am gone, gone far, with the fairies roaming,
You may ask of me where the herons are
In the open marsh when the snipe are homing,
Or when no moon lights nor a single star.
On stormy nights when the streams are foaming
And a hint may come of my haunts afar,
With the reeds my floor and my roof the gloaming,
But I come no more to Ballynar.

Ask Father Ryan to read no verses
To call me back, for I am this day
From blessings far, and beyond curses.
No heaven shines where we ride away.

At speed unthought of in all your stables,
With the gods of old and the sons of Finn,
With the queens that reigned in the olden fables
And kings that won what a sword can win.
You may hear us streaming above your gables
On nights as still as a planet's spin;
But never stir from your chairs and tables
To call my name. I shall not come in.

For I am gone to the fairy people.
Make the most of that other child
Who prays with you by the village steeple
I am gone away to the woods and wild.

I am gone away to the open spaces,
And whither riding no man may tell;
But I shall look upon all your faces
No more in Heaven or Earth or Hell.

~Lord Dunsanay~

Finding Fairies

Then the winds of March are wakening
The crocuses and crickets,
Did you ever find a fairy near
Some budding little thickets,
A-straightening her golden winds
and combing out her hair?
She's there!
And when she sees you creeping up
To get a closer peek
She tumbles through the daffodils,
A-playing hide and seek,
And creeps into the tulips till
You can't find where she's hid?
Mine did!
Have you ever, ever come across
A little toadstool elf
A-reading by a firefly lamp
And laughing to himself,
Or a saucy fairy queen upon
Her favorite dragonfly?
So've I!
It's fun to see a fairy flutter
Off a catkin boat,
And wrap her fairy baby in
A pussywillow coat;
Oh, don't you love the fairies
And their fairy babies, too?
I do!

~Marjorie Barrows~

The Sidhe

When the moon is full
On a starless night
A lone Sidhe puts his lips to the horn
And he begins to blow

The music echoes through the fog
Each Sidhe picks up the song
The grey horses lift their ears
Answer the call, then begins to run across the bog

They ride in the wild hunt
Strange wild and free
The mist roils as they fly
Everyone douth flee

They ride through the forest dark
The ground is hard
They kill on a lark
Full of the battle lust

A fire burns inside their hearts
Driving others to pain
They destroy, they hurt
For nothing to gain

When the moon is full
On a starless night
A lone Sidhe puts his lips to the horn
And he begins to blow

~Elizabeth Chamberlain~

The Elven Dance

O you who dance among the trees
With endless grace and tireless ease
Would it disrupt your song to speak
Of who you are and what you seek?

We circle through the forest green
In patterns left to you unseen
And when the sunrise lights the sky
To other places we must fly

O you who fly into the night
With eyes that shine like stars and light
Please tell me now where do you run
When you depart from day and sun?

With light that you will never see
We travel over rock and tree
Yet in the blazing glare of dawn
Our own devices must be gone

O you who flee from sun and day
With strange enigmas you must play
To be se wary not to tell
Of who you are and where you dwell

We would inform you of our thought
Yet even willing we could not
Albeit you will wonder why
We must instruct you not to pry

O you who live behind fair guise
With masks complex and hidden eyes
You will I do not understand
To cast aside a searching hand

We know not how to make you see
Our use of words is not so free
The only thing that we can say
Is not to look for us this way

O you who walk the other side
With ways you are compelled to hide
Though I would gladly know your lore
I will depart and ask no more

We beg you not to leave our sight
And ride to long-forgotten light
Your presence cannot be so wrong
We bid you stay and hear our song

O you who beckon with your smile
With beauty somehow filled with guile
Though you may change your mind and heart
With thought of danger I depart

Alas! another one is lost
We cannot bear the heavy cost
Of longing to reveal our ways
Yet cursed until the end of days

To never let another know
Of why we wander to and fro
And of our dreams and of our thought
And of the closeness we have sought

So on we dance among the trees
And wait until another sees
And maybe this time he will find
The center of our tangled mind

~Amanda Baggs~