The Blue-Eyes Fairy (Blackwood, set by E. Elgar) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


There's a Fairy that hides in the beautiful eyes
Of the children who treat her well;
In the little round hole where the eyeball lies
She weaves her magical spell.

[Oh, tell it to me,
 Oh, how can it be,
 This Spell of the Blue-Eyes Fairy.]¹

[Well,]² -- the eyes must be blue,
And the heart must be true,
And the child must be better than gold!
And then if you'll let her,
The quicker the better,
She'll make you forget that you're old.
[That you're heavy and stupid, and -- old!]³

So if such a child you should chance to see,
Or with such a child to play,
No matter how [weary and]⁴ dull you be,
Nor how many tons you weigh,
You will suddenly find that you're young again,
And your movements [are]³ light and airy,
And you'll try to be solemn and stiff in vain -
It's the Spell of the Blue-Eyes fairy!

[Now I've told it to you,
And you know it is true --
It's the Spell of the Blue-Eyes Fairy!]³

View text without footnotes
¹ Elgar:

She is awfully tiny and shy to the sight,
But her magic's past believing,
For she fills you with light and with laughter,
It's the spell of her own sweet weaving.

² Elgar: "But!"
³ omitted by Elgar.
⁴ Elgar: "tired or"

Authorship

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)

A Prisoner in Fairyland

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

The Starlight Express

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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