A Fairy Went A-Marketing

That is the name of the poem and illustration I am sharing with you today. Have you heard this poem before? Well I had not and now I am in love with it. I love the gentle, caring ways of this beautiful little fairy.  As an adult I read this poem and I wonder what I would have thought of it as a child, because reading it now it has a very deep and profound message for me and for all of us.

I think if I had to choose one word to express my thoughts about this poem, 

I would choose the word Compassion.

The name of the book is Poems for Boys and Girls compiled by Marjorie Barrows and illustrated by Lois Maloy.  I am sure you will be seeing many more excerpts from this book in the future, but for now here is the poem. I am including the text in case some of you have trouble reading the print on the image.

A Fairy Went A-Marketing

by 

Rose Fyleman

A Fairy went a-marketing--

She bought a little fish;

She put it in a crystal bowl

Upon a golden dish.

An hour she sat in wonderment

And watched its silver gleam,

And then she gently took it up

And slipped it in a stream.

A fairy went a-marketing--

She bought a colored bird;

It sang the sweetest, shrillest song

That ever she had heard.

She sat beside its painted cage 

And listened half the day,

And then she opened wide the door

And let it fly away.

A fairy went a-marketing--

She bought a winter gown

All stitched about with gossamer

And lined with thistledown.

She wore it all the afternoon

With prancing and delight,

Then gave it to a little frog

To keep him warm at night.

A fairy went a-marketing

She bought a gentle mouse

To take her tiny messages,

To keep her tiny house.

All day she kept its busy feet

Pit-patting to and fro,

And then she kissed its silken ears,

Thanked it, and let it go.