An old alchemist had assistants
Of Craft from Titania’s Kingdom
And they worked for him at nights
in return for fairy food abloom.
Salamander belched out a fire
Under the tripod holding a beaker
In shrill forever fiery yellow ire
that grew hotter and madder;
Until Undine’s Purified Water
From the well of Fairy Realm
Boiled and bubbled in the beaker
She watched with pensive calm;
As Gnome put a sorcerer’s stone
As black as the Stygian River
From the bottom of Earth alone
Into the Water like a wise thinker;
While Sylph was breathing Air
Into the Earth joined with the Water
And the Fire in the Craft of Wonder
Creating Gold and Elixir in Splendor.
P.S.: The fundamental personality types are sanguine – red (hopeful), choleric-yellow (ireful), melancholic -black (shy), and phlegmatic -blue (calm). In fairy-tale theory, the following fairies represent the four elements: Sylphs – air (red), Salamanders – fire (yellow), Gnomes -earth (black), and Undines – water (blue) . Hence this poem is an amalgam of the aforesaid theories conjured up in my mind’s eye.
