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Home  »  A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895  »  The Fairy Thrall

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Mary C. G. Byron b. 1861

The Fairy Thrall

ON gossamer nights when the moon is low,

And stars in the mist are hiding,

Over the hill where the foxgloves grow

You may see the fairies riding.

Kling! Klang! Kling!

Their stirrups and their bridles ring,

And their horns are loud and their bugles blow,

When the moon is low.

They sweep through the night like a whistling wind,

They pass and have left no traces;

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,

Their glimmering steps to follow?

They bore me far from my loved one’s side,

To wander o’er hill and hollow.

Kling! Klang! Kling!

Their stirrups and their bridles ring,

But my heart is cold in the cold night-tide,

Where the elfins ride.”