Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HERESY OF AN ELDER ON NOT BELIEVING IN FAIRIES, by JOHN DRINKWATER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HERESY OF AN ELDER ON NOT BELIEVING IN FAIRIES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I don't believe in fairies;- / I've something else to do
Last Line: I shall know that I am blind.
Subject(s): Fairies; Elves


I DON'T believe in fairies; --
I've something else to do,
Believing that behind the clouds
The sky is always blue,
That every day at half-past one
It's nearly half-past two.

I don't believe in fairies,
Because my Uncle James
Transcendentalised about them,
And told me of their games,
While he never saw the flying birds,
And didn't know their names.

I don't believe in fairies;
I think that lazy men
Who think the sunshine commonplace
Invented them, and then
Forgot that it is wonderful
That five and five make ten.

I saw the lambs at Whitsuntide,
And a bullfinch in a tree,
I saw a mushroom in the mist
And dolphins in the sea, --
I don't believe in fairies,
But these are faith for me.

Clear are the stars and the thrushes' eggs
For tidy hearts to find,
And I think that fays and lepracauns
Are slatterns of the mind,
And if I ever meet one
I shall know that I am blind.





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