Down along the rocky shore Some make their home, They live on crispy. pancakes Of yellow tide-foam; Some in the reeds Of the black mountain lake, With frogs for their watch-dogs, All night awake. High on the hill-top The old King sits; He is now so old and gray On his stately journeys From Slieveleague to Rosses; Or going up with music On cold starry nights To sup with the Queen Of the gay Northern Lights. They stole little Bridget Her friends were all gone. Between the night and morrow, They thought that she was fast asleep, By the craggy hill-side, The Fairy Thrall If any man so daring As dig them up in spite, He shall find their sharpest thorns Up the airy mountain, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather! 235 William Allingham [1824-1889] THE FAIRY THRALL ON gossamer nights when the moon is low, You may see the fairies riding. Kling! Klang! Kling! Their stirrups and their bridles ring, And their horns are loud and their bugles blow, They sweep through the night like a whistling wind, But one of them lingers far behind The flight of the fairy faces. She makes no moan, She sorrows in the dark alone, She wails for the love of human kind, Like a whistling wind. “Ah! why did I roam where the elfins ride, They bore me far from my loved one's side, Kling! Klang! Kling! Their stirrups and their bridles ring, But my heart is cold in the cold night-tide, Where the elfins ride." Mary C. G. Byron [1861 FAREWELL TO THE FAIRIES FAREWELL, rewards and fairies! Good housewives now may say, For now foul sluts in dairies Do fare as well as they. And though they sweep their hearths no less Than maids were wont to do, Yet who of late, for cleanliness, Finds sixpence in her shoe? Lament, lament, old abbeys, The fairies' lost command! But some have changed your land; Who live as changelings ever since, For love of your demains. At morning and at evening both These pretty ladies had; When Tom came home from labor, Or Ciss to milking rose, Then merrily merrily went their tabor Witness those rings and roundelays Farewell to the Fairies But since of late, Elizabeth, And later, James came in, They never danced on any heath As when the time hath been. By which we note the fairies Their dances were procession. A tell-tale in their company 237 Richard Corbet [1582-1635] THE CHILDREN THE CHILDREN WHEN the lessons and tasks are all ended, To bid me good night and be kissed; And when they are gone, I sit dreaming When the glory of God was about me, All my heart grows as weak as a woman's, They are idols of hearts and of households; |