The Fairy Boy

A Little Fairy in a tree
Wrinkled his wee face at me;
And he sang a song of joy
All about a little boy,
Who upon a winter night,
On a midnight long ago,
Had been rapt away from sight
Of the world and all its woe;
Rapt away,
Snapt away,
To a place where children play
In the sunlight all the day.
Where the winter is forbidden,
Where no child may older grow,
Where a flower is never hidden
Underneath a pall of snow;
Dancing gaily,
Free from sorrow,
Under dancing summer skies,
Where no grim mysterious morrow
Ever comes to terrorize.

This I told a priest and he
Spoke a word of mystery;
And with candle, book and bell,
Tolling Latin like a knell
Ruthlessly,
From the tree,
Sprinkling holy water round,
He drove the Fairy down to hell,
There in torment to be bound.

So the tree is withered and
There is sorrow on the land:
But the devils milder grow
Dancing gay
Every day
In that kinder land below:
There the devils dance for joy
And love that little wrinkled boy.

~James Stephens~

Fairy Song

Oh, where do fairies hide their heads,
when snow lies on the hills,
when frost has spoil'd their mossy beds
and crystallized their rills?

Beneath the moon they cannot trip
in circles o're the plain,
and drafts of dew they cannot sip
till green leaves come again;
till green leaves come again.

Perhaps in small blue diving bells
they plunge beneath the waves,
inhabiting the wreathed shells
that lie in coral caves.

Perhaps in red Vesuvius Carousals they maintain,
and cheer their little spirits up,
till green leaves come again;
till green leaves come again.

When back they come there'll be glad mirth
and music in the air,
and fairy wings upon the earth,
and mischief everywhere.

The maids, to keep the elves aloof,
will bar the doors in vain,
no keyhole will be fairy proof
when green leaves come again;
when green leaves come again.

~Thomas Haynes Bayly~

An Explanation of the Grasshopper

The Grasshopper ,The Grasshopper,
I will explain to you:
He is the Brownies' racehorse,
The Fairies' Kangaroo.

~Vachel Lindsey~