Mythology & Folklore

A Fairy Hunt

by Francis Ledwidge 1887–1917

From Last Songs (1918)

Mythology & FolkloreNature

Who would hear the fairy horn
Calling all the hounds of Finn
Must be in a lark's nest born
When the moon is very thin.

I who have the gift can hear
Hounds and horn and tally ho,
And the tongue of Bran as clear
As Christmas bells across the snow.

And beside my secret place
Hurries by the fairy fox,
With the moonrise on his face,
Up and down the mossy rocks.

Then the music of a horn
And the flash of scarlet men,
Thick as poppies in the corn
All across the dusky glen.

Oh! the mad delight of chase!
Oh! the shouting and the cheer!
Many an owl doth leave his place
In the dusty tree to hear.

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'Who would hear the fairy horn / Calling all the hounds of Finn / Must be in a lark's nest born.' A brisk poem of the hunt and its audience of owls.

MLA

Ledwidge, Francis. “A Fairy Hunt.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/56/.

Chicago

Ledwidge, Francis. “A Fairy Hunt.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/56/.

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