To My Fairy Fancies
Nay, no longer I may hold you,In my spirit's soft caresses,Nor like lotus-leaves enfold youIn the tangles of my tresses.Fairy fancies, fly awayTo the white cloud-wildernesses,Fly away!
Nay, no longer ye may lingerWith your laughter-lighted faces,Now I am a thought-worn singerIn life's high and lonely places.Fairy fancies, fly away,To bright wind-inwoven spaces,Fly away!
Words in this poem
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To My Fairy Fancies is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, To My Fairy Fancies, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/to-my-fairy-fancies.html, id L27492.
Form and metre
To My Fairy Fancies is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCBC. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCBC youA · caressesB · youA · tressesB · awayC · wildernessesB · awayC
- 2 ABABCBC lingerA · facesB · singerA · placesB · awayC · spacesB · awayC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Nay, no longer I may hold you, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| In my spirit's soft caresses, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Nor like lotus-leaves enfold you | 8 | ··/˘·˘/· |
| In the tangles of my tresses. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Fairy fancies, fly away | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| To the white cloud-wildernesses, | 8 | ····/˘˘˘ |
| Fly away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Nay, no longer ye may linger | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| With your laughter-lighted faces, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Now I am a thought-worn singer | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In life's high and lonely places. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Fairy fancies, fly away, | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| To bright wind-inwoven spaces, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Fly away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.