THE FAIRY BOY by JAMES STEPHENS

A little Fairy in a tree
Wrinkled his wee face at me;
And he sang a song of joy
All about a little boy,
Who upon a winter night,
On a midnight long ago,
Had been rapt away from sight
Of the world and all its woe;
Rapt away,
Snapt away,
To a place where children play
In the sunlight all the day.

Where the winter is forbidden,
Where no child may older grow,
Where a flower is never hidden
Underneath a pall of snow;
Dancing gaily,
Free from sorrow,
Under dancing summer skies,
Where no grim mysterious morrow
Ever comes to terrorize.

This I told a priest and he
Spoke a word of mystery;
And with candle, book and bell,
Tolling Latin like a knell,
Ruthlessly,
From the tree,
Sprinkling holy water round,
He drove the Fairy down to hell,
There in torment to be bound.

So the tree is withered and
There is sorrow on the land:
But the devils milder grow
Dancing gay
Every day
In that kinder land below:
There the devils dance for joy
And love that little wrinkled boy.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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