Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/11

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TO

ELSPETH ANGELA CAMPBELL.


Too late they come, too late for you,These old friends that are ever new,Enchanted in our volume blue,
For you ere now have wandered o’erA world of tales untold of yore,And learned the later fairy-lore!
Nay, as within her briery brakeThe Sleeping Beauty did awake,Old tales may rouse them for your sake,
And you once more may voyage throughThe forests that of old we knew,The fairy forests deep in dew,
Where you, resuming childish things,Shall listen when the Blue Bird sings,And sit at feast with fairy Kings,
And taste their wine, ere all be done,And face more welcome shall be noneAmong the guests of Oberon.
Ay, of that feast shall tales be told,The marvels of that world of gold,To children young, when you are old.
When you are old! Ah, dateless ‘when,’For youth shall perish among men,And Spring herself be ancient then!
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