RPO -- Leigh Hunt : Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)

Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard

1We, the Fairies, blithe and antic,

2Of dimensions not gigantic,

3Though the moonshine mostly keep us,

4Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.

5Stolen sweets are always sweeter,

6Stolen kisses much completer,

7Stolen looks are nice in chapels,

8Stolen, stolen, be your apples.

9When to bed the world are bobbing,

10Then's the time for orchard-robbing;

11Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling,

12Were it not for stealing, stealing.

Notes

1] Four more stanzas were added later. The stanzas here printed are a free translation of some Latin verses in the drama of Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry, by Thomas Randolph.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Tatler: A daily journal of literature and the stage (London: J. Onwhyn, 8 Sept. 1830). AP T385 MICR mfm Robarts Library
First publication date: 1838
RPO poem editor: J. D. Robins
RP edition: 2RP.2.155; RPO 1996-2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/8

Form: couplets

Other poems by Leigh Hunt