The Fays that to my christ'ning came <br />(For come they did, my nurses taught me), <br />They did not bring me wealth or fame, <br />'Tis very little that they brought me. <br />But one, the crossest of the crew, <br />The ugly old one, uninvited, <br />Said, 'I shall be avenged on YOU, <br />My child; you shall grow up short-sighted!' <br />With magic juices did she lave <br />Mine eyes, and wrought her wicked pleasure. <br />Well, of all gifts the Fairies gave, <br />HERS is the present that I treasure! <br /> <br />The bore whom others fear and flee, <br />I do not fear, I do not flee him; <br />I pass him calm as calm can be; <br />I do not cut--I do not see him! <br />And with my feeble eyes and dim, <br />Where YOU see patchy fields and fences, <br />For me the mists of Turner swim - <br />MY 'azure distance' soon commences! <br />Nay, as I blink about the streets <br />Of this befogged and miry city, <br />Why, almost every girl one meets <br />Seems preternaturally pretty! <br />'Try spectacles,' one's friends intone; <br />'You'll see the world correctly through them.' <br />But I have visions of my own, <br />And not for worlds would I undo them.<br /><br />Andrew Lang<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fairy-s-gift/
