Ammon Wrigley - "The Fairy Etcher"
The following is a transcription of a work by Saddleworth poet Ammon Wrigley (1861-1946).
The Fairy Etcher
Frost Pictures on the Window Panes
- A fairy stood on my window sill
- One starry winter’s night,
- When hill and dale lay deathly still
- In ghostly shrouds of white.
- And on the window panes she drew,
- With skilled and dainty hand,
- The scenes that she loved and knew
- In far-off fairy land.
- One pane showed high some mountain crags,
- By sullen tempest piled!
- And standing there, some antlered stags
- Looked out across the wild.
- And one seemed glorious with the dawn,
- With level beams outspread!
- Along a breezy upland lawn
- That feet of shepherds tread.
- And one a farmstead seemed to show,
- Amid long fields of wheat!
- A broad highway ran down below,
- By copse and orchard sweet.
- And there a woodland ran to riot
- With feathery bracken fronds!
- ’Mid leafy bramble and the quiet
- Of reed encircled ponds.
- A sleeping hamlet backed by cliffs
- And stormy winter moors:
- The cold white snow, in heavy drifts,
- Lay deep about its doors.
- And one fair hill with rounded sweep,
- And knots of coppice trees;
- And out beyond, a silvery steep
- Dipped down to lonely seas.
- One pane had strange unearthly shapes
- In wild fantastic dance!
- Centaurs and dragons, elfs and apes,
- From realms of old romance.
- And one was thronged with angel wings,
- Down swooping in their flight!
- And shapely heads, with shining rings
- Of everlasting light.
- And one had warriors, mailed and tall,
- And plumed cavaliers!
- While bristling up a castle wall—
- A multitude of spears.
- And one a stretch of ocean shore,
- With pools and shells and sand!
- Where one lone figure stood and wore
- The light of holy land.
- One pane was wrought with scrollwork fair,
- Like some cathedral choir!
- With sculptured columns, white and rare,
- And sainted windows all afire.
- For lo, the morning sun had sent,
- Upon the panes, a ruddy beam,
- And one by one the pictures went—
- Like faces in a dream.