7 - Yeats for Children - The Faerie Song

This is the poem I used to tell my child when she went to sleep. Of course I  changed the interpretation a little. A Celtic princess runs away with her love before she is forced to marry a king much older than she is.
They run in the forest, and before the soldiers of the king catch up with them and separate them forever, they have a night of respite, lying under a big tree.
The old fairies dance around them singing  a magic song to protect them.

I identified with the old fairies, because I am older than other moms, but I still can feel the magic when  I read or sing at night. Old women are usually called witches, not fairies. I also identified with the couple, given peace and magic in the forest, "away from men," from anyone.

The Celtic legend is far more muddled, it is unclear if Grania was a victim or just a betrayer of the king. There are many versions of this old legend, so I thought I'd make up my own.
 

The Faerie Song
By W.B. Yeats

We who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest, far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.