Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Faeries’ Fool

Anna Fitch

THUS spake my faerie sponsors long ago,

Weaving wild spells that I might do their will:

(Laughing they spoke—and yet my mother wept,

Cuddling me closer still!)

“We name thee Fey-heart, little newborn soul—

Go thou and serve the world’s most foolish things:

Whistle through thumbs to moldy garden-seeds,

And brush the wood-gnat’s wings.

We give thee cobwebs and a reel of dreams

To pay the tavern’s score for wine and bread.

Go thou, small soul, and spend thy elfin coin,

And make thy storm-swept bed.”