Questions? Comments? -K. E. Dennis
Poetry Worldwide (all else....)
Cherry-Time
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Fairies and Fusiliers
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| "Fairies and Fusiliers collects poems written during World War I,
when Graves served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the Western Front..." Full text online |
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Cherries of the night are riper
Than the cherries pluckt at noon
Gather to your fairy piper
When he pipes his magic tune:
Merry merry,
Take a cherry;
Mine are sounder,
Mine are rounder,
Mine are sweeter
For the eater
Under the moon,
And you'll be fairies soon.
In the cherry pluckt at night,
With the dew of summer swelling,
There's a juice of pure delight,
Cool, dark, sweet, divinely smelling.
Merry merry,
Mine are sounder,
Mine are rounder,
Mine are sweeter
For the eater
In the moonlight,
And you'll be fairies quite.
When I sound the fairy call.
Gather here in silent meeting,
Chin to knee on the orchard wall,
Cooled with dew and cherries eating.
Merry merry,
Mine are sounder,
Mine are rounder,
Mine are sweeter
For the eater
When the dews fall.
And you'll be fairies all.