For in the whole of fairy land They have no finer sight On tip-toe crowding round their heads, That fill their minds with dreams; And then the little spotted moths Will visit you to-night. Robert Bird "OH! WHERE DO FAIRIES HIDE THEIR HEADS?" Oh! where do fairies hide their heads, When frost has spoiled their mossy beds, And crystallized their rills? Beneath the moon they cannot trip In circles o'er the plain; And draughts of dew they cannot sip, Till green leaves come again. Perhaps, in small, blue diving-bells Carousals they maintain; And cheer their little spirits thus, When they return, there will be mirth And music in the air. And fairy wings upon the earth, And mischief everywhere. The maids, to keep the elves aloof, No key-hole will be fairy-proof, When green leaves come again. Thomas Haynes Bayly THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE FAIRIES Down the bright stream the fairies float, A water-lily is their boat. Long rushes they for paddles take, Their mainsail of a bat's wing make; With glow-worm lantern all's complete. So down the broadening stream they float, The Queen on speckled moth-wings lies, And elves and fairies, with a shout Down the broad stream the fairies float, And now they're tossing on the sea, Where waves roll high and winds blow free,— Ah, mortal vision nevermore Shall see the fairies on the shore, Or watch upon a summer night Far, far away upon the sea, The waves roll high, the breeze blows free; The elves have ceased their sportive play, The fairies in their fragile boat, Farther and farther from the shore, And lost to mortals evermore! W. H. Davenport Adams FAIRY SONG Have ye left the greenwood lone? Fairy King and Elfin Queen, Come ye to the sylvan scene, From your dim and distant shore, Never more? Shall the pilgrim never hear "Mortal! ne'er shall bowers of earth "Ne'er on earth-born lily's stem Never more!" Felicia Dorothea Hemans FAREWELL TO THE FAIRIES Farewell, rewards and fairies! Good housewives now may say, For slatterns now in dairies Do fare as well as they. And though they sweep their hearths no less At morning and at evening both Then merrily went their tabor And nimbly went their toes. Witness those rings and roundelays And later, James came in, They never danced on any heath As when the time hath been. Richard Corbet |