Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Fancy: II. Fairies: Elves: Sprites | | “Oh! where do fairies hide their heads?” | | Thomas Haynes Bayley (1797–1839) |
| | | OH! where do fairies hide their heads, | |
| When snow lies on the hills, | |
| When frost has spoiled their mossy beds, | |
| And crystallized their rills? | |
| Beneath the moon they cannot trip | 5 |
| In circles o’er the plain; | |
| And draughts of dew they cannot sip, | |
| Till green leaves come again. | |
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| Perhaps, in small, blue diving-bells | |
| They plunge beneath the waves, | 10 |
| Inhabiting the wreathèd shells | |
| That lie in coral caves. | |
| Perhaps, in red Vesuvius | |
| Carousals they maintain; | |
| And cheer their little spirits thus, | 15 |
| Till green leaves come again. | |
| |
| When they return, there will be mirth | |
| And music in the air, | |
| And fairy wings upon the earth, | |
| And mischief everywhere. | 20 |
| The maids, to keep the elves aloof, | |
| Will bar the doors in vain; | |
| No key-hole will be fairy-proof, | |
| When green leaves come again. | | | | |
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