National Poetry Month Dare: Commit ‘The Stolen Child’ by W. B. Yeats

In 1896, Irish Monthly published William Yeats’ “The Stolen Child,” a poem which, along with Yeats’ books Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry and Fairy Folk Tales of Ireland, reflect the poet’s long fascination with fairies and their legends. “The Stolen Child” focuses on the mythology of fairies snatching up children, though in this poem, there is less actual snatching and more a prolonged, and ultimately successful, effort by the fairies to lure the child away, with sweet berries and cherries, with dancing, and with peaceful sleep.

The well-known poem has made its way into many songs, perhaps best-known versions by Loreen McKennitt and The Waterboys.

National Poetry Month is now underway. Here at Tweetspeak, we’re extending our latest Poetry Dare, and along with the allure of the fairies, invite you to commit (memorize) “The Stolen Child” with us. We have a brand new printable with Faery Badges you can cut out and color to reward yourself for each stanza you memorize. Tweet a picture of yourself with your badge to us @tspoetry with the hashtag #commitpoetry. Better yet, post a video of your #commitpoetry recitation.

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 berrys
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 you 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 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 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 for 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 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 than he can understand.

— W. B. Yeats

Download The Stolen Child Printable

Photo by Ollie Henze, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Yeats poem is in the public domain. Post and printable by Will Willingham.

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Will Willingham

Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

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