The Best Game the Fairies Play

By Rose Fyleman 1877–1957 Rose Fyleman

The best game the fairies play,

The best game of all,

Is sliding down steeples—

(You know they’re very tall).

You fly to the weathercock,

And when you hear it crow,

You fold your wings and clutch your things

And then let go!

They have a million other games—

Cloud-catching’s one,

And mud-mixing after rain

Is heaps and heaps of fun;

But when you go and stay with them

Never mind the rest,

Take my advice—they’re very nice,

But steeple-sliding’s best!

Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)

Biography

Rose Fyleman was a prolific English writer whose publications include more than sixty volumes of fiction, poetry, and plays. Fyleman was born in 1877 in Nottingham, England. She attended University College in Nottingham, then undertook training for a career as an opera singer. Fyleman failed to find work in opera, but she nonetheless managed to obtain employment as a singer. In addition, she conducted singing lessons and . . .

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