FAWN O’MERA
Reading edition
Had you never, Fawn O’Mera, Never heard the magic bell Tolling from the belfries airy Of the towered land of Fairy Where the Elfin people dwell? Had you never, Fawn O’Mera, Seen the Laughing People ride, Gold, and green, and rowan, trooping Like a flock of sea gulls swooping Out to sea, by some roadside?
Little bits of sticks, and snatches Tattered too, of roadside straw; Here and there the dead leaves whirling In the wind; the gray dust pearling Over them was all they saw! They, the New Born souls, that newly Grow to threescore year and ten, Ancient only in the cradle, Crafty with the porridge ladle, Children still as greedy men.
But the lovely, loving, lilting, Laughing Wise Ones who are Old, Whom a thousand years make tender, And whose kind eyes know the splendour Of the Dawn, saw fairy gold! Hear them singing, Fawn O’Mera! Girlhood guessed the song before. Now, the candles flare and dwindle, And a burden grows the spindle, And the flax falls to the floor.
Leave the young, whose love is asking, Leave the old whose love’s a chain, Ere they strew your head with ashes, Dim the eyes and dew the lashes, Come into your own again. I will take you, Fawn O’Mera, To the Fairy Glades apart, And where green leaves know no falling, Hush the old unhappy calling, Wake your soul, and still your heart.
