Fairy Tale Poetry | "Fairy Tale" by Theodora Goss

{Gartenpromenade, Thorald Læssøe (1816–1878)}

You ask where you will find her.      Beside the singing fountains,

Where orange trees are blossoming and perfuming the air,

Where the night is like an orchard, with orange blossoms shining,

And the spirit of the fountains unbinds her wild blue hair.

Ask courage of the crimson bird and follow where it tells you,

The talking bird that maps the long brown road to heart's desire.

Pass by the groaning forests, and boars that speak in parables,

And stop your ears as you approach the taunting realms of fire.

When you have reached the final citadel, you'll find the trousers

That give a man a league at step, the cither that is wise

Enough to know how you can open all the cut–glass doorways.

Release the cat that smiles and blinks its dreaming amber eyes.

Then, after chasm and abyss, and after crystal mountains

That dazzle and confuse the mind like verticle green seas,

You'll come at last beneath the trees of fragrant orange–orchards

Where the princess in the singing fountains bathes her soft white knees.

~

{Frederick Goodall (1822-1904)}

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