Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Robert Graves (1895–1985). Fairies and Fusiliers. 1918.

44. Cherry-Time

CHERRIES of the night are riper

Than the cherries pluckt at noon

Gather to your fairy piper

When he pipes his magic tune:

Merry, merry,

Take a cherry;

Mine are sounder,

Mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter

For the eater

Under the moon.

And you’ll be fairies soon.

In the cherry pluckt at night,

With the dew of summer swelling,

There’s a juice of pure delight,

Cool, dark, sweet, divinely smelling.

Merry, merry,

Take a cherry;

Mine are sounder,

Mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter

For the eater

In the moonlight.

And you’ll be fairies quite.

When I sound the fairy call,

Gather here in silent meeting,

Chin to knee on the orchard wall,

Cooled with dew and cherries eating.

Merry, merry,

Take a cherry;

Mine are sounder,

Mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter.

For the eater

When the dews fall.

And you’ll be fairies all.