Adventures in CyberSound: A Broadcasting Alphabet

A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N D

A Broadcasting Alphabet by Eleanor Farjeon (Excerpt "C" is for Crystal)

I have a little magic box

Cased in with windows clear;

It has a Fairy that unlocks

Sweet secrets to my ear.

My Fairy in a Crystal lies

Imprisoned out of sight,

For though I stare with all my eyes

I never see her quite.

Sometimes she sleeps and nothing says

Until her dreams are stirred -

But you must learn to know her ways

Before she'll say a word.

You mustn't bang upon her door

With sticks and things like that

But you must use,nor less nor more,

The Whisker of a Cat.

Then when you've tapped the Crystal well

Where it most brightly gleams,

The Fairy to your ear will tell

A dozen different dreams.

Source: The Radio Times, October 7, 1927, Cited in Briggs, Susan, Those Radio Times, pp.26