W.B. Yeats - The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats;
There we've hid out faery vats,
Full of berries
And the reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters of the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal-chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
From a world more full of weeping than he can understand.

1886

This isn't an interpretation, per se, but I thought it was interesting to share here. Barnaby Rayner shared his thoughts with me, in part as follows:

While I am certainly not educated enough to offer an interpretation of Yeats’ romantic poem ‘The Stolen Child’ I’d like to offer a few thoughts. The west of Ireland, while being deeply Catholic, especially in those far off days, was also deeply superstitious. I grew up there as an outsider, (born in the UK), and found that the two are not mutually exclusive but are often found harmoniously side by side in regular mass-goers and rural folk. The subject matter needs no great introduction to you I’m sure, the notion of ‘Changlings’ – where fairies would swap one of their own for one of ours was widespread. To this day people will still add “God bless him/her” when something is being praised or complimented, most especially the young. The idea being that Gods invocation might prevent those malicious fairies from purloining it. Religious belief and arcane superstition run hand in hand quite comfortably. All dieing out now, more’s the pity but that’s modern life. Those same fairies were blamed for everything untoward that happened in the countryside, from poor harvests and sudden disappearances to medical maladies, you name it – they got blamed for it.