by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
Come hither, my sparrows
Language: English
"Come hither, my sparrows, My little arrows. If a tear or a smile Will a man beguile, If an amorous delay Clouds a sunshiny day, If the step of a foot Smites the heart to its root, 'Tis the marriage-ring - Makes each fairy a king." So a Fairy sung. From the leaves I sprung; He leap'd from the spray To flee away; But in my hat caught, He soon shall be taught. Let him laugh, let him cry, He's my Butterfly; For I've pull'd out the sting Of the marriage-ring.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), written 1793, appears in Notebook [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by William Henry Bell (1873 - 1946), "The fairy", 1940, from Twelve Blake Songs, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "The fairy", op. 138 no. 8 (c1977) [ double chorus of mixed chorus a cappella ], from Nine poems from the note-book (1793) of William Blake, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "The marriage ring", op. 27c no. 3 (1973) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Leif Thybo (b. 1922), "The fairy", alternate title: "The butterfly", 1974, published c1978 [ SSA trio a cappella ], Copenhagen : Edition Wilhelm Hansen [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 91