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 hid 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
Than he 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 waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than he 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 the 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
Than he can understand

And 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
Than yee can understand