The Stolen Child
By William Butler Yeats (1886,1889 )
Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away,
O human child!
To the water and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light
Far off by furthest Rosses
We Foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
Come away,
O human child!
To the water and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away,
O human child!
To the water and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Of the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal-chest
For he comes, the human child,
To the water and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.