Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Allingham. 18241889769. The Fairies
UP the airy mountain, | |
Down the rushy glen, | |
We daren’t go a-hunting | |
For fear of little men; | |
Wee folk, good folk, | 5 |
Trooping all together; | |
Green jacket, red cap, | |
And white owl’s feather! | |
Down along the rocky shore | |
Some make their home, | 10 |
They live on crispy pancakes | |
Of yellow tide-foam; | |
Some in the reeds | |
Of the black mountain lake, | |
With frogs for their watch-dogs, | 15 |
All night awake. | |
High on the hill-top | |
The old King sits; | |
He is now so old and gray | |
He ‘s nigh lost his wits. | 20 |
With a bridge of white mist | |
Columbkill he crosses, | |
On his stately journeys | |
From Slieveleague to Rosses; | |
Or going up with music | 25 |
On cold starry nights | |
To sup with the Queen | |
Of the gay Northern Lights. | |
They stole little Bridget | |
For seven years long; | 30 |
When she came down again | |
Her friends were all gone. | |
They took her lightly back, | |
Between the night and morrow, | |
They thought that she was fast asleep, | 35 |
But she was dead with sorrow. | |
They have kept her ever since | |
Deep within the lake, | |
On a bed of flag-leaves, | |
Watching till she wake. | 40 |
By the craggy hill-side, | |
Through the mosses bare, | |
They have planted thorn-trees | |
For pleasure here and there. | |
If any man so daring | 45 |
As dig them up in spite, | |
He shall find their sharpest thorns | |
In his bed at night. | |
Up the airy mountain, | |
Down the rushy glen, | 50 |
We daren’t go a-hunting | |
For fear of little men; | |
Wee folk, good folk, | |
Trooping all together; | |
Green jacket, red cap, | 55 |
And white owl’s feather! |