Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FOR A CHILD NAMED KATHARINE, by LOUISE TOWNSEND NICHOLL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR A CHILD NAMED KATHARINE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I wait for god as I go to sleep
Last Line: "I am the child who waits for you."
Subject(s): Children; Fairies; Childhood; Elves


God and the Fairies, be true, be true!
I am the child who waits for you.

I wait for God as I go to sleep.
I stretch out my hand for His hand to keep.
I look for Fairies where grass is deep,
And once where I heard a bell on the sheep.
The Saint who comes at Christmas-time
Is someway not so much all mine.
He surely comes, for Christmas Day,
But I never ask that Saint to stay.
He brings me beautiful things to keep,
But I liked the best the bell on the sheep.
God and the Fairies I can not see
Are the ones that I want to stay with me.
They always stay with me through the night,
But they go just before the room is light.
It is always just God, or just Fairies, who stay,
But I never know which, nor which is away.
But once I woke when it was dark
And Something made me hush and hark.
My hand which I'd left outside on the sheet
Was tucked very gently under my cheek.
So I knew it was God who stayed that night --
And then I slept till it was light.
And when my hand stays out on the bed,
I guess the Fairies are there instead.

I think the Fairies bring the dreams,
And when I wake and my room seems
Very strange, because I've played
All the night in a woodsy glade
In my dreaming, then I know
Fairy folk have made it so --
Fairy folk who slide, they say,
Into the house on a thin moon's ray.
But always Something has been there,
To fill my room with Day and air,
To make me feel so sweet and wise
Before I open up my eyes.
But sometimes when it's bright and Day,
I feel alone and I must pray.
I am sure of them and yet I say,
"God and the Fairies, be true, be true!
I am the child who waits for you."





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