old song or poem

[puzzlepup]

does anybody know a song or poem which starts all around the fairy ring the little people play i think it starts like that thanks in advance

[eac2337]

I think you are talking about a song called the "Thorn Tree." The lyrics are as follows

All night around the thorn tree the little people play
And men and women passing will turn their heads away
From break of dawn till moonrise
Alone it stands on high
With twisted springs for branches across the winter sky.

They’ll tell you dead men hung there
It’s black and bitter fruit.
To guard the buried treasure
Round which it twines its root
They’ll tell you Cromwell hung them
But that could never be
He’d be in dread like others
To touch the Fairy Tree

From Moonrise ‘round the thorn tree the little people play
And men and women passing will turn their heads away.
But if your heart’s a child’s heart and if your eyes are clean
You’ll never fear the thorn tree that grows beyond Clougheen.

The use of the "Fairy Ring" in the quotation is an example of the type of substitution that frequently takes place when the original words do not convey the context.

[margie04]

Thank you so much for that , eac, I've been trying to find the words for many years - there's another verse going something like "But Mary Ryan saw there In some strange dream she had, the blessed son of Mary, and all His face was sad" - at least now I have the title I can search properly.