2 JULY 1910, Page 27

POETRY.

TITANIA. IN THE HAYFIELD.

TITANIA to the hayfield came,

With a bag of buttercup money : 'Twas market day in Fairyland, And she bought her clover honey.

The daisies are the fairies' eggs,

And they grow all ready fried ; She took her basket from her arm, And put ten eggs inside.

And twice ten butter balls she bought, The milkmaids sold her milk, She had gold slippers by the score, Green ribbons of grass silk.

The spider sold her a gossamer gown And a dozen of ladies' smocks.

"I'll have three pairs of the best foxgloves, Two dandelion clocks.

rn have a carpet of lily moss,

A curtain of beech-leaves brown, Toadstools, a set of acorn cups, And a bed of thistledown."

The Fairy Queen took fairy gold, And spent it merrily, When standing by the hawthorn hedge, She came on me . . . on me.

"Sell me the rose of your rose-red lips,

And sell me the shine of your hair, Sell me the white of your finger-tips—

Your eyes . . . I'll have the pair."

Why did I flout the Fairy Queen P

What made me speak so bold ? Dear heart, why did I laugh and say, I'll none of your fairy gold ?

Sure Titania '11 pass again this way, When I grow old.. .