ASSORTED POEMS AND QUOTES FROM PLAYS ABOUT FAIRIES
Mist-clad
in the light of the moon
Starspun
seekers - I search for thee!
Faery
light - I ask thy boon
Of
branch and thorn and Elder tree!
Wood
woven creatures, shadow weavers
River
keepers - come to me!
Just
beyond reaching
Never
in keeping
Spirits
of Faery - I call unto thee!
Wind-hewn
wildness
Dark
and brightness
Spiral
enchantments - born of the sky!
Cradle
me with elven hands,
Abide
with me, thy human child!
--W.B
Yeats
Where
are the fairies? Where can we find them?
We've
seen the fairy rings, they leave behind them when they have danced
all night,
Where
do they go? Lark, in the sky above, Say, do you know?
It
is a secret, no one is telling.
Why,
in your garden, surely their dwelling!
No
need for journeying, Seeking afar:
Where
there are flowers, there fairies are!"
--Cicely
Mary Barker
Extract
from
"The
Maydes Metamorphosis"
Trip
it, little urchins all,
Lightly
as the little bee,
Two
by two, and three by three;
And
about go we, about go we.
Upon
the next live creature that it sees.
--John
Lyly
Excerpt from
"June"
And
what if cheerful shouts at noon
Come,
from the village sent,
Or
song of maids, beneath the moon
With
fairy laughter blent?
--William
Cullen Bryant
Excerpt from
"The
Deserted Garden"
My
childhood from my life is parted,
My
footstep from the moss which drew
Its
fairy circle round: anew
The
garden is deserted.
--Elizabeth
Barrett Browning
"Those
that see the people of Faerie most often,
and
so have the most of their wisdom,
are
often very poor, but often, too,
they
are thought to have a strength beyond man."
--W.B.
Yeats
"Come
faeries, take me out of this dull world,
for
I would ride with you upon the wind
and
dance upon the mountains like a flame"
--W.B.Yeats
I
do wander everywhere,
Swifter
than the moone's sphere;
And
I serve the fairy queen,
To
dew her orbs upon the green.
--William
Shakespeare
A
little child, a limber elf,
Singing,
dancing to itself,
A
fairy thing with red round cheeks,
That
always finds and never seeks. . . .
--Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
Grey
lichens, mid they hills of creeping thyme,
Grow
like to fairy forests hung with rime;
And
fairy money-pots are often found
That
spring like little mushrooms out of ground,
Some
shaped like cups and some in slender trim
Wine
glasses like, that to the very rim
Are
filled with little mystic shining seed.
--John
Clare, Fairy Things
If
so befel, in that fair morning tide,
The
faries sported on the garden's side,
And
in the midst their monarch and his bride.
So
featly tripped the light-foot ladies round,
The
knight so nimbly o'er the greensward bound,
That
scarce they bent the flowers or touched the ground.
The
dances ended, all the fairy train
For
pinks and daisies searche'd the flowery plain.
--Alexander
Pope
Her
mother was the faire Chrysogonee,
The
daughter of Amphisa, who by race
A
Faerie was, borne of high degree.
--Edmund
Spenser, The Faerie Queene
"The
land of faery,
Where
nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where
nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where
nobody gets old and bitter of tongue."
--William
Butler Yeats
"In
olde days of the King Artour,
Of
which the Bretons speken gret honour,
All
was this lond fulfilled of faerie;
The
elf-quene, with hire joly compagnie,
Danced
ful oft in many a grene mede.
This
was the old opinion as I rede;
I
speke of many hundred yeres ago;
But
now can no man see non elves mo,
For
now the grete charitee and prayers
Of
limitoures and othere freres,
That
serchen every land, and every streme,
As
thickke as motes in the sunnebeme,
Blissing
halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures,
Citees
and burghes, castles highe and toures,
Thropes
and bernes, shepenes and dairies,
This
maketh that ther ben no faeries."
--Chaucer
THE
fairies break their dances
And
leave the printed lawn,
And
up from India glances
The
silver sail of dawn.
The
candles burn their sockets,
The
blinds let through the day,
The
young man feels his pockets
And
wonders what's to pay.
--A.E.
Housman, XXI (selections from Last Poems)
"Bid
me discourse, I will enchant thine ear,
Or
like a fairy, trip upon the green,
Or
like a nymph, with long dishevelled hair,
Dance
on the sands, and yet no footing scene:
Love
is a spirit all compact of fire,
Not
gross to sink, but light, and will aspire."
--William
Shakespeare, excerpt from Venus and Adonis
"I
know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where
ox lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite
over-canopied with lush woodbine,
With
sweet musk roses, and with eglantine:
There
sleeps Titania, sometime of the night,
Lulled
in these flowers with dances and delight,
And
there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed
wide enough to wrap a fairy in."
--William
Shakespeare, excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Fairies,
black, grey, green, and white,
You
moonshine revellers, and shades of night,
You
orphan heirs
of fixed
destiny,
Attend
your office and your quality."
--William
Shakespeare, excerpt from Merry Wives of Windsor, Mistress
Quickly at V, v.
O,
for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.
This
is the fairy land: O spite of spites!
We
talk with goblins, owls and sprites:
If
we obey them not, this will ensue,
They'll
suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.
--William
Shakespeare, excerpt from The Comedy of Errors, Act 2, Scene 2
Merry,
merry England has kissed the lips of June:
All
the wings of fairyland were here beneath the moon;
Like
a flight of rose-leaves fluttering in a mist
Of
opal and ruby and pearl and amethyst.
--Alfred
Noyes, excerpt from Sherwood
Ye
elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And
ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do
chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When
he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By
moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof
the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
Is
to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To
hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak
masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The
noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And
'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set
roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have
I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With
his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have
I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The
pine and cedar: graves at my command
--William
Shakespeare, excerpt from The Tempest
They
also say, if earth or stone,
From
verdant Erins hallowed land
Were
on this magic island thrown,
For
ever fixed, it then would stand,
But,
when for this, some little boat
In
silence ventures from the shore -
The
mermaid sinks - hushed is the note,
The
fairy isle is seen no more!
--Anonymous,
excerpt from The Enchanted Island
When
at home alone I sit
And
am very tired of it,
I
have just to shut my eyes
To
go sailing through the skies--
To
go sailing far away
To
the pleasant Land of Play;
To
the fairy land afar
Where
the Little People are;
Where
the clover-tops are trees,
And
the rain-pools are the seas,
And
the leaves, like little ships,
Sail
about on tiny trips;
And
above the Daisy tree
Through
the grasses,
High
o'erhead the Bumble Bee
Hums
and passes.
--Robert
Louis Stevenson, excerpt from The Little Land
It
is the season now to go
About
the country high and low,
Among
the lilacs hand in hand,
And
two by two in fairy land.
--Robert
Louis Stevenson, excerpt from It Is The Season Now To Go
I
threw one look to either hand,
And
knew I was in Fairyland.
And
yet one point of being so
I
lacked. For, Lady (as you know),
Whoever
by his might of hand,
Won
entrance into Fairyland,
Found
always with admiring eyes
A
Fairy princess kind and wise.
It
was not long I waited; soon
Upon
my threshold, in broad noon,
Gracious
and helpful, wise and good,
The
Fairy Princess Moe stood.
--Robert
Louis Stevenson, excerpt from To An Island Princess
"And
what should I make wi' a horse o' pride,
And
what should I make wi' a sword so brown,
But
spill the rings o' the Gentle Folk
And
flyte my kin in the Fairy Town?"
--Rudyard
Kipling, excerpt from The Last Ryme of True Thomas
I
have just to shut my eyes
To
go sailing through the skys
To
go sailing far away
To
the pleasant land of Play
To
the fairy land afar
Where
the little people are..."
--Robert
Louis Stevenson. excerpt from The Little Land
We
may see how all things are
Seas
and cities, near and far,
And
the flying fairies' looks,
In
the picture story-books.
--Robert
Louis Stevenson, excerpt from Picture Books in Winter
"Tis
merry, 'tis merry, in Fairy-land,
When
fairy birds are singing,
When
the court cloth ride by their monarch's side,
With
bit and bridle ringing:
'And
gayly shines the Fairy-land-"
--Sir
Walter Scott, excerpt from Lady in the Lake
Thorn,
Ash and Oak are their favorite trees
So
perhaps you could circle the boughs with these:
Some
Foxgloves for thimbles, some Thyme for a treat
Bluebells
for their magic and logs for a seat!
Plant
Primrose and eat them if you dare by the day
and
it is said by the evening you'll glance a few Fey!
Believe
in the fairies who make dreams come true.
Believe
in the magic from the fairies above,
They
dance in the flowers and sing songs of love.
And
if you believe and always stay true,
The
fairies will be there to watch over you.
--Grimshaw
Ah,
you open straight into fairyland,
and
the fairies love you and they will never change.
Fairyland's
always been there,
it
always was from the beginning of time
and
always will be to the end.
--Henry
James
Bright
Eyes, Light Eyes! Daughter of a Fay!
I
had not been a married wife a twelvemonth and a day,
I
had not nursed my little one a month upon my knee,
When
down among the blue bell banks rose elfins three times three:
They
griped me by the raven hair, I could not cry for fear,
They
put a hempen rope around my waist and dragged me here;
They
made me sit and give thee suck as mortal mothers can,
Bright
Eyes, Light Eyes! strange and weak and wan!
--Robert
Buchanan, The Fairy Foster Mother
This
is the fairy land. O spite of spites,
We
talk with goblins, owls, and sprites!
If
we obey them not, this will ensue:
They'll
suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.
--William
Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
(Dromio of Syracuse at II, ii)
They
are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die.
I'll
wink and couch; no man their works must eye.
--William
Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
(Falstaff at V, v)
But
light as any wind that blows
So
fleetly did she stir,
The
flower, she touch'd on, dipt and rose,
And
turned to look at her.
--Lord
Alfred Tennyson, The Talking Oak
(st. 33)
The
Faeries went from the world dear
Because
men's hearts grew cold
And
only the eyes of children see
What
is hidden from the old.
And
only the magic of love dear
Can
ever turn the key
That
unlocks the gates of Faerieland
To
set the Sidhe folk free.
--Kathleen Foyle, The Little Good Folk