TREES AND FAIRIES
The larch-tree gives them needles
To stitch their gossamer things;
Carefully, cunningly toils the oak
To shape the cups of the fairy folk;
The sycamore gives them wings.
The lordly fir-tree rocks them
High on his swinging sails;
The hawthorn fashions their tiny spears;
The whispering alder charms their ears
With soft, mysterious tales.
The chestnut gives them candles
To make their ballroom fine;
And the elder-bush and the hazel tree
Assist their delicate revelry
With nuts and fragrant wine.
FAIRIES IN THE MALVERNS
As I walked over Hollybush Hill
The sun was low and the winds were still,
And never a whispering branch I heard
Nor ever the tiniest call of a bird.
And when I came to the topmost height
Oh, but I saw such a wonderful sight:
All about on the hill-crest there
The fairies danced in the golden air.
Danced and frolicked with never a sound
In and out in a magical round;
Wide and wider the circle grew
Then suddenly melted into the blue.