| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Fairy Godmothers | | By Eugene Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) |
| | | I THINK the fairies to my christening came; | |
| But they were wicked sprites and envious elves, | |
| Who brought me gall, as bitter as themselves, | |
| In tiny tankards wrought with fairy flame. | |
| They wish’d me love of books—each little dame— | 5 |
| With power to read no book upon my shelves; | |
| Fair limbs for numbness; Dead-Sea fruits by twelves, | |
| And every bitter blessing you can name. | |
| |
| But one good elf there was, and she let fall | |
| A single drop of Poesy’s wine of gold | 10 |
| In every little tankard full of gall. | |
| So, year by year, as woes and pains grow old, | |
| The little golden drop is in them all; | |
| But bitterer is the cup than can be told. | | | | |
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