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Children's Poem Of The Week: Dance Of The Stream Sprite by Jacqueline Shirtliff

Dance of the Stream Sprite

Shuffle through the shady shallows,
Leap from log to log,
Tango past the tangled brambles,
Tiptoe round the bog.

Skipping, stepping, pirouetting where the minnows teem;
I’m dancing to the mesmerizing music of the stream.

Balance over broken branches,
Limbo under bridges,
Twist and turn through murky tunnels,
Samba with the midges.

Skipping, stepping, pirouetting where the minnows teem;
I’m dancing to the mesmerizing music of the stream.

Waltz wildly down the waterfalls,
Gallop up the glen,
Slip smoothly through deep glassy pools
Then dance it all again!

Skipping, stepping, pirouetting where the minnows teem;
Come, join me in my dancing to the music of the stream.

The velocitous, energetic metre and resounding rhymes of ‘Dance of the Stream Sprite’ make of the poem a perfect vehicle for children of all ages. As anyone who has ever skipped over a stream or run with abandon through woodland knows, the gathering feeling of unalloyed freedom confers its own sensual reward.

And why, as the poem’s clamour to join in implies, should the sense of joyful immediacy be restricted to kids? Jacqueline Shirtliff’s fine poem of apprehension, of seizing the moment, finds antecedents, in form and execution, all over a poetic landscape awash with ingenious wordplay and alliterative flourish. The instinctive and refreshing innocence of a Clough or a Hopkins can sometimes distil the child in all of us.

‘Dance of the Stream Sprite’ is taken from Chasing Clouds: Brilliant Adventures in a Poetry Balloon, published by Yorkshire Times Publishing (2022)

More information here.

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