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Sticks And Stones...

© Virginia Marin

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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never fail me. Hmmmm. That isn't quite right, but the Faeries said it was close enough.

One day as we were placing polished stones along the garden path, each of us began painting with the gift of speech as the stones were laid. Unbeknowing to me, my poet's innermost feeling issuing in rhythmic language was being recorded by the Fae for me to present to the Faerie Queen on Muse's Poetry Meet. As Shelley said, 'twas the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best of times, or did he say minds? I had better stay with times!

Muse's Poetry Meet is a special day for the Faeries as it is their yearly time for honoring the muses of poetry. The muses, daughters of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks and Mnemosyne, are by name Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Urania, Terpsichore (lyric poetry), Calliope (epic poetry) and Erato (love poetry). The muses are known not only for giving inspiration to poets but also for taking away the poetic gifts of a poet who becomes too boastful.

The Poetry Meet lasts for a day in Faerie time, being about four hours as human's count. The Fae busy themselves for days in advance preparing foods of the gods as well as enticing bites of delectibles for whomever of humankind stops in during their Faerie Vision Quests. Each attendant at the festival is required to present to the Queen a poem.

The world of Faerie abounds in poetry and surely this one from Shakespeare is an all-time favorite:

By the moon we sport and play,
With the night begins our day:
As we dance, the dew doth fall;
Trip it little urchins all,
Lightly as the little Bee,
Two by two and three by three;
And about go we, and about go we.

Other types of faerie poetry are found in narratives, runes, epics, satire and heroic verse. Blank verse contains lines which do not rhyme. The mystical and obscure poems known as runes are inscribed in stone with Celtic-like designs. Epic poetry deals with the adventures of a man or a group of men as they attempt to achieve a goal. Some of the greatest epics are found in mythology. Faerie epopees are similar to an epic but written in French. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an example of this though it is of Mesopotamian origin. An elegy is written in lament and praise of the dead. Yes, death is recorded in Faerie. Satirical poetry of the Faeries is used to expose the vices and follies of the capricious ones, while heroic verse, the tales of heroes, is seen particularly in the legends of Homer. Beowulf and Spencer's Faerie Queen are two other examples.