The Stolen Child

Album: Fisherman's Blues (1987)
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  • (WB Yeats)
    Come away, human child
    to the water
    Come away, human child
    to the water and the wild
    With a fairy, hand in hand
    for the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

    Where dips the rocky highland
    of Sleuth Wood in the lake
    There lies a leafy island
    where flapping herons wake
    The drowsy water rats;
    there we've hid our fairy vats
    Full of berries
    and of reddest stolen cherries

    Come away, human child
    to the water
    Come away, human child
    to the water and the wild
    With a fairy, hand in hand
    for the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

    Where the wave of moonlight glosses
    the dim gray sands with light
    Far off by furthest Rosses
    we foot it all the night
    Weaving olden dances
    mingling hands and mingling glances
    Till the moon has taken flight;
    to and fro we leap
    And chase the frothy bubbles
    while the world is full of troubles
    And is anxious in its sleep

    Come away, human child
    to the water
    Come away, human child
    to the water and the wild
    With a fairy, hand in hand
    for the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

    Where the wandering water gushes
    from the hills above Glen-Car
    In pools among the rushes
    the scarce could bathe a star
    We seek for slumbering trout
    and whispering in their ears
    We give them unquiet dreams;
    leaning softly out
    From ferns that drop their tears
    over the young streams

    Away with us he's going
    the solemn-eyed:
    He'll hear no more the lowing
    of the calves on the warm hillside;
    Or the kettle on the hob
    sing peace into his breast
    Or see the brown mi Writer/s: MIKE SCOTT
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Sebp from Montreal, QcThe song was also recorded by Canadian singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt on her 1985 debut album "Elemental". Not as good as the Waterboys' version, though.
  • Lyndon from Cork, IrelandThe man in question is Tomas McKeown,
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