What does William Shakespeare's poem 'a fairy song' mean?

Answer 1

William Shakespeare did not intend you to consider the words you have anthologised under the name "A Fairy Song" seperately from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. They are spoken by a fairy who runs into Robin Goodfellow, otherwise known as Puck by way of an introduction. The important point here is that the fairy says "And I serve the fairy queen" which means that she (it's usually a she, but could be a he) is one of Titania's servants, and she further says that the Queen and her fairies are coming to this spot. All the rest of it is about how she wanders about doing errands for Titania like hanging dewdrops in flowers and other silly stuff.

A dumbed-down version of the song might go like this: "I go over hills and valleys, through bushes and thorns, over parks and fenced-in spaces, through water and fire. I wander everywhere faster than the moon revolves around the Earth. I work for Titania, the Fairy Queen, and organize fairy dances for her in the grass. The cowslip flowers are her bodyguards. You'll see that their petals have spots on them-those are rubies, fairy gifts. Their sweet smells come from those little freckles. Now I have to go find some dewdrops and hang a pearl earring on every cowslip flower. Goodbye, you dumb old spirit. I've got to go. The queen and her elves will be here soon."

Answer 2

Cowslips are indeed flowers and they have a little pearl like drop hanging down in them that is what the last line is about, its talking about a fairy flying around enjoying spreading dew drops on the plants

Answer 3

The Fariy song is a poem about a fairy going around and spreading dew drops on the flowers. He is spreading the dew drops for the fairy queen. A cowtail is the type of flower he is spreading the dew on. Shakespeare calls cowtails the queens pensioners meaning the queen is giving them something. much like an employee getting a pension at work. this poem is all about a fairy serving his fairy queen.

Answer 4

Cowslips are indeed flowers and they have a little pearl like drop hanging down in them that is what the last line is about, its talking about a fairy flying around enjoying spreading dew drops on the plants

Answer 5

It really helps to understand what is described as a "poem" if you know that Shakespeare wrote this as lines for an insignificant character in his play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to say at the beginning of Act 1 Scene 3 of that play. The fairy character is responding to the question "whither wander thou?" when means "where are you going?"

So the "theme", if you can call it that, of the speech is where the fairy is going, since Puck has asked. None of this is important to the play or anything else.

What is important is the line "the Queen and all her elves come here anon."

Answer 6

I recommend that you read or watch A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare in which (in Act 2 Scene 1) the fairy Puck asks another fairy where he or she is going. He or she, it is not clear which, answers that he or she is going over hill, over dale, through bush, through briar and so on (in the words you have been given totally out of context) as fast as he or she can to do errands for the Fairy Queen, laying out dewdrops all over the place. The speech (which you think is a poem) ends with the words "The Queen and all her elves come here anon" which means that they are coming soon. This proves to be the case as she promptly enters, stage right.

Answer 7

William Shakespeare gets his ideas across for 'a fairy song' by having the fairy describe all of the work she/he does for the queen.
Shakespeare never wrote a poem called "The Fairy Song." It is nicknamed that because the words in the piece are spoken by a fairy in the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the words relate to the fairies in the play.

Answer 8

The song anthologized as "A Fairy Song" is sung (or spoken) by a fairy at the beginning of act 2 scene 1 in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. The fairy is answering the question by Puck, "How now, spirit, whither wander you?". The answer is "I do wander everywhere" which she does (it could be "he" but the part is usually played by an actress these days) because she is a servant of Titania the fairy queen, who, she tells us, will "come here anon". She engages in some further conversation with Puck, from which we gather that they are indeed fairies, tiny little people, and that her boss Titania and his boss Oberon are both coming to that place and when they do there will be ructions because they are fighting. Puck is important to the balance of the play; the fairy is never heard from again.

So the whole reason for the "fairy song" is to give the audience the idea that even though they look like normal-sized human actors we are to imagine that Puck, Titania, Oberon and all the other fairies are really tiny little magical people.

Answer 9

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