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 fairy vats
Full of berries,
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O, human child!
To the waters and the wild,*
With a fairy 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 farthest 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 waters and the wild,*
With a fairy 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;
We give them evil dreams,
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Of dew on the young streams.
Come! O, human child!
To the waters and the wild,*
With a fairy 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 hill-side.
Or 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 waters and the wild,*
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
he can understand.

Text by W.B. Yeats;* Art by George Wooliscroft & Louis Rhead
"The Lady of the Lake Steals Lancelot" from Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King

*This poem is a compound of two versions. The second line of the chorus in this version (1) originally said, "To the woods and waters wild," but I changed it when someone informed me of the other version (2), and that his grandfather used to quote it that way. Other differences include the spelling of "fairy/faery" and the first line of the chorus.
(1) Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. Originally published: Gerrards Cross: C. Smythe, 1973. With a forward by Kathleen Raine. "Contains Fairy and folk tales of Irish peasantry, first published in 1888, and Irish fairy tales, first published in 1892.
(2) Yeats Selected Poetry from Pan Classics 7th printing 1980; also The Collected Poems of Yeats. The Macmillan Company, 1956 (Definitive Edition); LOC: 56-8200

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