Blog 2 Poetry

The poem I choose was The Fairies, by William Allingham. I found this poem at www.poetry-archieve.com/a/the_fairies.html by using www.google.com.

THE FAIRIES
by: William Allingham (1824-1889)
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!

This poem is how the people in town are scared to go hunting because of the fairies. The fairies are very protected of their land, their surroundings and their people. In the poem their outfits are describe, and to me they're dress as an army or unit. William talks about how they live along the rocky shore and they have frogs as watch dogs. So if any hunter who try to capture the fairies, the frogs, I guess, make a croaking sound to alert the fairies that someone is coming for them. Moving on to the third stanza, it talks about the king of the fairies, how he's so old and gray and losing his wits. I guess on the fifth and sixth lines of the third stanza, the king cross pass with Columbkill, known as Saint Columbkill when he's on his journeys from Slieve League to Rosses. Both locations are in the coast of County Donegal, Ireland. The king is taking this journey on a cold starry night, to have dinner with the Queen of the gay Northern Lights. Then on the fourth stanza William talks about how the fairies kidnapped a woman named Bridget seven years ago. She came back but her friends were gone and the fairies took her back, and between that night and tomorrow she died, but the fairies thought she was fast asleep. So they put her body on a large lily pad on a lake where they watch until she awake from her deep sleep. On the fifth stanza basically it’s about how any man who digs the thorns the fairies planted, he will feel the sharpest thorn on his backside at night. The last stanza repeats the first stanza, the town people are afraid to go hunting because the fairies.
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