alchemist and four fairies

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.