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Quotations about Fairies
Faeries, come, take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!
~William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894
Spread your wings and let the fairy in you fly! ~Author unknown
The fairies break their dances
And leave the printed lawn...
~A.E. Housman
[She] followed, half awake and half asleep,
Until she came into the land of faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue;
And she is still there, busied with a dance,
Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood,
Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.
~William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894
A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest, said to me, that the woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer has passed onward: a thought which poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human feet. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "History"
No child but must remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest, and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
We call them faerie.
We don't believe in them.
Our loss.
~Charles de Lint, Moonlight & Vines, 1999
Blind folk see the fairies.
Oh, better far than we,
Who miss the shining of their wings
Because our eyes are filled with things
We do not wish to see...
Deaf folk hear the fairies
However soft their song;
'Tis we who lose the honey sound
Amid the clamour all around
That beats the whole day long...
~Rose Fyleman, "White Magic," 1918
Their Majesties and I sat where two streams
Of starry rivers joined and flowed away as one,
And their enchanted castle made of dew and dreams
Towered above us high beyond the moon and sun.
~Harry Behn (1898–1973), The House Beyond the Meadow, 1955
The smears of silver on the webs that line
The tree's crook'd roots, or stretch, white-wov'n, within
The hollow stump, are stains of Faëry wine
Spilled on the cloth where Elf-land sat to dine,
When night beheld them drinking, chin to chin,
O' the moon's fermented shine.
~Madison J. Cawein (1865–1914), "Gramarye"
A rustle in the wind reminds us a fairy is near. ~Author unknown
Soft moss a downy pillow makes
And green leaves spread a tent,
Where Faerie folk may rest and sleep
Until their night is spent.
The bluebird sings a lullaby;
The firefly gives a light:
The twinkling stars are candles bright,
Sleep, Faeries all, Good Night.
~Elizabeth T. Dillingham, "A Faery Song"
Any man can lose his hat in a fairy-wind. ~Irish saying
There is, indeed, much in nature that we do not yet half enjoy, because we shut our avenues of sensation and feeling. We are satisfied with the matter of fact, and look not for the spirit of fact which is above it. If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower. ~Samuel Smiles, Thrift, 1875
Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom.... It is true as sunbeams... ~Douglas Jerrold, "Our Honeymoon: An Apology and An Explanation," in Punch, Vol xxiv, 1853
And all about, among the blossoms, fairies flew
Or bounced themselves upon enormous drops of dew...
~Harry Behn (1898–1973), The House Beyond the Meadow, 1955
Peacocks sweep the fairies' rooms;
They use their folded tails for brooms;
But fairy dust is brighter far
Than any mortal colours are;
And all about their tails it clings
In strange designs of rounds and rings;
And that is why they strut about
And proudly spread their feathers out.
~Rose Fyleman, "Peacocks," 1917
...here are the fairies skipping and dancing around to the music of the blue-bells. ~A. Frederick Collins
— Acorns and angleworms!
— Bee-stings and nettles!
— Nightshade and spiders!
~George M. P. Baird, fairy curse words in "The Theft of Thistledown: A Faery Interlude," 1915 ["Faeries are very much like humans, after all, and sometimes in moments of excitement they use swear words and shocking language such as this."
I was brought up on fairies, not the kind you read of in Hans Andersen but real kobolds of the rocks and pixies of the wood. They were my own fairies, and would come when I called. I never outlived their reality, and I still see people in the roses, and forms in the groves and rocks just as other persons do in the clouds. Yesterday, I saw an old, old man at a distance. I know he beckoned to me. He was at the top of the oldest, tallest rosebush on the Cape. So I reached up and picked him. He wanted to say something, and I put him to my lips and kissed him because he seemed so lonely and so old.
Right by the lighthouse is the strong profile of an old woman, cut by the master surf in the red granite ledge. Half reclining, the old lady looks out to sea with eternal vigilance and patience. What does she seek? For whom is her vigil? The spume and the wrack have been her mates — tears have dropped from her eyes in storm and wreck.
So I took the old man over, and placed him in the old lady's flinty mouth. I know the old Man Rose curled lovingly toward the old lady's beetling nose that she might scent again the spring she had not known for ten thousand centuries. Am I foolish? Papa would say that I was fey. ~Laura L. Livingstone (Herbert Dickinson Ward), Lauriel: The Love Letters of an American Girl, 1901 [altered
Bring the buds of the hazel-copse,
Where two lovers kissed at noon;
Bring the crushed red wild-thyme tops
Where they murmured under the moon....
~Alfred Noyes, "A Spell (An Excellent Way to get a Fairy)," The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems, 1915 [Context note: As beautiful as this excerpt is, the remainder of the poem could be considered quite horrid, especially for the squeamish reader.
The little Plumpuppets are fairies of beds:
They have nothing to do but watch sleepy heads;
They turn down the sheets and they tuck you in tight,
And they dance on your pillow to wish you good night!
~Christopher Morley, "The Plumpuppets," The Rocking Horse, 1919
"Now tell us why you came to see us," said the Queen.
And so I told her, "Only because a sound of only
Crows calling over a meadow seemed so lost between
Someplace and noplace, I thought you must be very lonely."
Like moonlight sparkling, dripping into drops of dew
Her jewels tinkled as she cried, "You do believe we're true!"
I said, "Of course I do." So, with their wings aquiver,
They sat in state upon the petals of a flower
And begged me please to stay with them forever and ever!
But I said I could only stay about an hour...
~Harry Behn (1898–1973), The House Beyond the Meadow, 1955
Fairies glitter our hearts with giggles. ~Terri Guillemets
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time...
~William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, c.1595 [V, 1, Theseus]
First, rehearse your song by rote
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.
~William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, c.1595 [V, 1, Titania]
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published 2004 Jan 4
revised 2006, 2020, 2021
last saved 2023 Mar 6
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