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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE FAIRY IN WINTER by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: THERE WAS A FAIRY - FLAKE OF WINTER
Last Line: BARE, RIMED PINE-WOODS MURMURED LAMENT.

There was a Fairy -- flake of winter --
Who, when the snow came, whispering, Silence,
Sister crystal to crystal sighing,
Making of meadow argent palace,
Night a star-sown solitude,
Cried 'neath her frozen eaves, 'I burn here!'

Wings diaphanous, beating bee-like,
Wand within fingers, locks enspangled,
Icicle foot, lip sharp as scarlet,
She lifted her eyes in her pitch-black hollow --
Green as stalks of weeds in water --
Breathed: stirred.

Rilled from her heart the ichor, coursing,
Flamed and awoke her slumbering magic.
Softlier than moth's her pinions trembled;
Out into blackness, light-like, she flittered,
Leaving her hollow cold, forsaken.

In air, o'er crystal, rang twangling night-wind.
Bare, rimed pine-woods murmured lament.



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