The Others From our hidden places By a secret path, We come in the moonlight To the side of the green rath. There the night through We take our pleasure, Dancing to such a measure As earth ever knew. To song and dance And lilt without name, So sweetly breathed ‘Twould put a bird to shame. And many a young maiden Is there of mortal birth, Her young eyes laden With dreams of earth. And many a youth entranced Moves slowly in the wildered round, His brave lost feet enchanted, With the rhythm of faery sound. Music so forest wild And piercing sweet would bring Silence on blackbirds singing Their best in the ear of spring. And now they pause in their dancing, And look with troubled eyes Earth straying children With sudden memory wise. They pause, and their eyes in the moonlight With faery wisdom cold, Grow dim and a thought goes fluttering In the hearts no longer old. And then the dream forsakes them, And sighing, they turn anew, As the whispering music takes them, To the dance of the elfin crew. O many a thrush and blackbird Would fall to the dewy ground, And pine away in silence For envy of such sound. So the night through In our sad pleasure, We dance to many a measure, That earth never knew. - Seumas O’Sullivan