Robert Graves' "I'd Love to Be a Fairy's Child"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 4 minutes

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Summary

Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celticists and students of Irish mythology.

Robert Graves produced more than 140 works in his lifetime. His poems, his translations and innovative analysis of the Greek myths, his memoir of his early life—including his role in World War I—Good-Bye to All That (1929), and his speculative study of poetic inspiration The White Goddess have never been out of print. He is also a renowned short story writer, with stories such as "The Tenement" still being popular today.

He earned his living from writing, particularly popular historical novels such as I, Claudius; King Jesus; The Golden Fleece; and Count Belisarius. He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts; his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular for their clarity and entertaining style. Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Tuesday, June 18th, 2004.
0:09.3	Today's poem is by Robert Graves, the early 20th century war poet. It was an English poet who saw active duty during World War I.
0:20.8	And even at that time, when he was a fairly young man,
0:25.4	he was becoming an established poet,
0:27.6	publishing three separate books of poetry while on active duty in the war.
0:34.2	Today's poem is called I'd Love to Be a Fairy's Child, and it was written by Graves the year that the war ended.
0:43.4	So you might take it as both a general reflection on childhood, on the fairy folk, but also a kind of prayer or hope or aspiration for what childhood might look like post-war.
1:02.2	Here is, I'd love to be a fairy's child.
1:08.6	Children born a fairy stock, never need for shirt or frock, never want for food or fire, always get their heart's desire, jingle pockets full of gold, marry when they're seven years old, every fairy child may keep two strong ponies and ten sheep. All have houses, each his own. Built of brick or granite stone,
1:33.2	they live on cherries, they run wild. I'd love to be a fairy's child. So this is certainly a fanciful and a whimsical poem.
1:49.1	As I said before, this could be a thinly veiled dream of the kind of carefree childhood
1:57.0	that really can't exist when your nation is at war or when neighboring nations are at war,
2:04.6	but that perhaps the poet is hopeful will exist again after the peace that ended World War I,
2:13.9	though that would not be true in the long run, unfortunately.
2:19.8	Perhaps, too, this is a poem expressing the desire to be as carefree as the fairy children himself
2:29.1	after having seen and lived through a number of horrific realities in the midst of the war.
2:39.0	Whatever the case, maybe it's just what it purports to be a
2:47.5	rollicking, good, imaginative litany of all of the privileges that fairy children have that we don't.
2:57.9	Whatever the case may be, here is.
3:00.6	I love to be a fairy's child one more time.
3:05.7	Children born a fairy stock, never need for a shirt or frock, never want for food or fire, always get their heart's desire, jingle pockets full of gold, marry when they're seven years old. Every fairy child may keep two strong ponies and ten sheep. All have houses each his own, built of brick or granite stone.
3:28.8	They live on cherries. They run wild.
	...

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