In which I provide a few poems to take with you into the world

 

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;

Some one came knocking,

I’m sure—sure—sure;

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But naught there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl’s call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

--Walter de la Mare

Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren’t go a-hunting

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl’s feather!

--William Allingham

What ran under the rosebush?

What ran under the stone

Could it have been a shadow,

Running away alone?

Maybe a fairy’s shadow,

Slipping away at dawn

To guard a gleaming pot of gold

For a busy leprechaun.

--Monica Shannon

 

image by Lennert Helje