Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas Haynes Bayly 1797–1839

Oh! Where Do Fairies Hide Their Heads?

OH! where do fairies hide their heads

When snow lies on the hills,

When frost has spoil’d their mossy beds,

And crystalliz’d their rills?

Beneath the moon they cannot trip

In circles o’er the plain;

And draughts of dew they cannot sip

Till green leaves come again.

Perhaps, in small, blue diving-bells,

They plunge beneath the waves,

Inhabiting the wreathed shells

That lie in coral caves;

Perhaps, in red Vesuvius,

Carousals they maintain;

And cheer their little spirits thus,

Till green leaves come again.

When they return there will be mirth,

And music in the air,

And fairy wings upon the earth,

And mischief everywhere.

The maids, to keep the elves aloof,

Will bar the doors in vain;

No key-hole will be fairy-proof,

When green leaves come again.