Happy Spring from Cicely Mary Barker

Happy Spring!  

from Cicely Mary Barker's "Bluebell Fairy" and "Daffodil Fairy" 

in her collection Flower Fairies of the Spring

Lilac Fairy

The Song of the Lilac Fairy
      by Cicely Mary Barker 

White May is flowering,
    Red May beside;
Laburnum is showering
    Gold far and wide;
But I sing of Lilac,
    The dearly-loved Lilac,
Lilac, in Maytime
    A joy and a pride!

I love her so much
    That I never can tell
If she's sweeter to look at,
    Or sweeter to smell.


from Cicely Mary Barker's The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies

The Bluebell Fairy

You can see where Cecily Mary Barker derived her inspiration for the Bluebell Fairy in Laura's English woodland photographs at On A Bluebell Quest.  Isn't it breathtaking?!

The Song of the Bluebell Fairy
by Cecily Mary Barker

My hundred thousand bells of blue,
    The splendour of the Spring,
They carpet all the woods anew
With royalty of sapphire hue;
The Primrose is the Queen, 'tis true.
     But surely I am King!
              Ah yes,
     The peerless Woodland King!

Loud, loud the thrushes sing their song;
    The bluebell woods are wide;
My stems are tall and straight and strong;
From ugly streets the children throng,
They gather armfulls, great and long,
     Then home they troop in pride --
             Ah yes,
     With laughter and with pride!

Cicely Mary Barker

Over the next few weeks, months, possibly years, I will be posting some of the poems and illustrations from Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies books.  The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies is an anthology of Barker's works: Flower Fairies of the Spring, Flower Fairies of the Summer, Flower Fairies of the Autumn, Flower Fairies of the Winter, Flower Fairies of the Trees, Flower Fairies of the Garden, Flower Fairies of the Wayside, and A Flower Fairy Alphabet.  Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies books presents an enchanting way of teaching your children to identify various names of prevalent flowers.  Countless children have been mesmerized by Barker's meticulously accurate and beguiling illustrations.

Now a little bit about Cicely Mary Barker :
 ~ born in West Croydon, Surrey, on 28 June 1895; died 16 February 1973
 ~ suffered from epilepsy
 ~ lived a happy, secure childhood with her father, mother, and sister, Dorothy
 ~ her father, Walter, encouraged her artistic talent
 ~ 1908 - 1940s enrolled in the Croydon Art Society; Cicely's father first enrolled her in the Croydon Art Society when she was thirteen years old
 ~ 1908 - 1919 enrolled in an art correspondence course
 ~ like Beatrix Potter, Barker studied natural world with botanical accuracy
 ~ strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and Kate Greenaway
 ~ always used real-life models for her paintings
 ~ remained a devout Christian throughout her life