Monday 2 April 2012

The rushy glen


All the way along on our new favourite walk
I was haunted by the first two lines
of a long forgotten poem.
I had no idea it was so long,
or so sinister.



The Fairies

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He's nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music
On cold starry nights
To sup with the Queen
Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag leaves,
Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn-trees
For pleasure here and there.
If any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,

We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!

William Allingham 1824-1889

5 comments:

  1. Good grief. I had not heard of the poem but the title certainly doesn't sound threatening does it?

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  2. Goodness, we were cruelly deceived at school! I was always sure that the poem contained only two verses.

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  3. That looks and sounds like a stunning place - definitely the sort of place fairies would reside (if indeed they do exist!).

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  4. This reminds me of the time when I first read The Raggle Taggle Gypsies all the way through :) There was an 'oooohhhh!' moment there.

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  5. Love the sound of the babbling brook and the birds singing.

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