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A Fairy Song
by Willaim Shakespeare
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon’s sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
A Fairy Song’ by William Shakespeare features in the well-loved play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s sung by a fairy and illustrates their work. These lines are found in Act 2 Scene 1 in the play. The fairy starts by saying that they travel “over hills” and “dales,” or valleys. They go through bushes and over confined spaces. They travel through water and fire. These dramatic lines are pursued by more hyperbolic statements. They say they roam faster than the moon goes around the earth. They work for the queen and even dance for her. The speaker also describes the cowslip flowers are bodyguards. The speaker concludes that they have to go and find some “dewdrops” and attach a pearl to every cowslip’s ear. The fairy says goodbye to Robin, calling him a “lob of spirits,” and declares that the queen is coming soon.
The poem follows a consistent rhyme scheme that conforms to the pattern of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and it is written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter means that each line contains five sets of two beats, known as metrical feet. The first is unstressed, and the second is stressed.