xxiii
The Fairy
' Come hither, my sparrows, i My little arrows. If a tear or a smile Will a man beguile, If an amorous delay 5 Clouds a sunshiny day, If the step of a foot Smites the heart to its root,
- Tis the marriage ring — 9
Makes each fairy a king.' So a fairy sung. From the leaves I sprung ; He leap'd from the spray ss To flee away ; But in my hat caught, He soon shall be taught. Let him laugh, let him cry, 17 He 's my butterfly ; For I've pulled out the sting Of the marriage ring.
MS. Book, p. 105. Title in pencil. Only in Swinb., pp. 142, 143, and EY,
iii. 96. Blake's first title (afterwards erased) was 'The Marriage Ring.'
Swinb. gives this instead of the later title : EY print both titles, without
indicating the author's deletion of the first.
step] tread MS. Book isi rdg. del. 10, 11 Swinb. prints both
stanzasasone. 11 sung] sang Swinb., EY. 12 sprung] sprang Swinb.,
EY. 13 the] his Swinb. 15 hat caught] Cp. a sketch in the MS.
Book, afterwards engraved by Blake for The Gates of Paradise, no. 7, repro-
duced in Gilchr., i. 99. 19, 20 For . . . ring] 1. 19 is an addition, the
poem originally ending with 1, 20 and a line now thoroughly erased :
' And the marriage ring '
20 Of] And MS. Book ist rdg. del. See preceding note.
