The Short Cut to Rosses
Nora Hopper Chesson
1871 to 1906
By the short cut to Rosses a fairy girl I met,
I was taken in her beauty as a fish is in a net.
The fern uncurled to look at her, so very fair was she,
With her hair as bright as seaweed new-drawn from out the sea.
By the short cut to Rosses ('twas on the first of May)
I heard the fairies piping, and they piped my heart away;
They piped till I was mad with joy, but when I was alone
I found my heart was piped away and in my breast a stone.
By the short cut to Rosses 'tis I'll go never more,
Lest she should also steal my soul that stole my heart before,
Lest she take my soul and crush it like a dead leaf in her hand,
For the short cut to Rosses is the way to Fairyland.
Nora Hopper Chesson's The Short Cut to Rosses
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