By Request: More Verses About the Fair Folk

Hello everyone –

I was delighted with the overwhelming response to the last edition of Quotemail, which featured poems about the Fair Folk and their Midsummer Eve revels! I received emails from several listmembers asking for more poems about the Fair Folk, so here’s a trio of poetical selections from famous authors of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

“Fairy Song” (Excerpted from Flower Fables, 1855)

By Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

The moonlight fades from flower and tree,

And the stars dim one by one;

The tale is told, the song is sung,

And the Fairy feast is done.

The night-wind rocks the sleeping flowers,

And sings to them, soft and low.

The early birds erelong will wake:

‘Tis time for the Elves to go.

        

O’er the sleeping earth we silently pass,

Unseen by mortal eye,

And send sweet dreams, as we lightly float

Through the quiet moonlit sky;--

For the stars’ soft eyes alone may see,

And the flowers alone may know,

The feasts we hold, the tales we tell:

So ‘tis time for the Elves to go.

        

From bird, and blossom, and bee,

We learn the lessons they teach;

And seek, by kindly deeds, to win

A loving friend in each.

And though unseen on earth we dwell,

Sweet voices whisper low,

And gentle hearts most joyously greet

The Elves where’er they go.

        

When next we meet in the Fairy dell,

May the silver moon’s soft light

Shine then on faces gay as now,

And Elfin hearts as light.

Now spread each wing, for the eastern sky

With sunlight soon will glow.

The morning star shall light us home:

Farewell! for the Elves must go.

“The Flowers” (Excerpted from A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1885)

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener’s garters, Shepherd’s purse,

Bachelor’s buttons, Lady’s smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames—

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Shady fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people’s trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where, if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

“Did You Ever?”

By Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

Did you ever see a fairy in a rose-leaf coat and cap

Swinging in a cobweb hammock as he napped his noonday nap?

Did you ever see one waken very thirsty and drink up

All the honey-dew that glimmered in a golden buttercup?

Did you ever see one fly away on rainbow-twinkling wings?

If you did not, why, how comes it that you never see such things?

Please feel free to send me requests for poems on various topics of interest to you, and I’ll be happy to delve into my resources and bring some forth for you in an upcoming edition of Quotemail! :)

Happy weekend –

Rob