A Lover's Quarrel among the Fairies

William Butler Yeats

Male Fairies: Do not fear us, earthly maid!
	We will lead you hand in hand
	By the willows in the glade,
	By the gorse on the high land,
	
	By the pasture where the lambs
	Shall awake with lonely bleat,
	Shivering closer to their dams
	From the rustling of our feet.
	
	You will with the banshee chat,
	And will find her good at heart,
	Sitting on a warm smooth mat
	In the green hill's inmost part.
	
	We will bring a crown of gold
	Bending humbly every knee,
	Now thy great white doll to hold --
	Oh, so happy would we be!
	
	Ah it is so very big,
	And we are so very small!
	So we dance a fairy jig
	To the fiddle's rise and fall.
	
	Yonder see the fairy girls
	All their jealousy display,
	Lift their chins and toss their curls,
	Lift their chins and turn away.
	
	See you, brother, Cranberry Fruit --
	He! ho! ho! the merry blade! --
	Hugs and pets and pats yon newt,
	Teasing every wilful maid.
	
Girl Fairies: Lead they one with foolish care,
	Deafening us with idle sound --
	One whose breathing shakes the air,
	One whose footfall shakes the ground.
	
	Come you, Coltsfoot, Mousetail, come!
	Come I know where, far away,
	Owls there be whom age makes numb;
	Come and tease them till the day.
	
	Puffed like puff-balls on a tree,
	Scoff they at the modern earth --
	Ah! how large mice used to be
	In their days of youthful mirth!
	
	Come, beside a sandy lake,
	Feed a fire with stems of grass;
	Roasting berries steam and shake --
	Talking hours swiftly pass!
	
	Long before the morning fire
	Wake the larks upon the green.
	Yonder foolish ones will tire
	Of their tall, new-fangled queen.
	
	They will lead her home again
	To the orchard-circled farm;
	At the house of weary men
	Raise the door-pin with alarm,
	
	And come kneeling on one knee,
	While we shake our heads and scold
	This their wanton treachery,
	And our slaves be as of old.

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