The Stolen Child

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 hidden our faery vats

Full of berries

And of reddest stolen cherries.

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Then you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses

The dim gray 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 anxious in its sleep.

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Then 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 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 waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Then 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

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 faery, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Then he can understand