And the track o'er which his boat must pass Is smooth as a sheet of polished glass, Around, their limbs the sea-nymphs lave,
With snowy arms half swelling out, While on the glossed and gleamy wave 350 Their sea-green ringlets loosely float; They swim around with smile and song; They press the bark with pearly hand, And gently urge her course along,
Toward the beach of speckled sand; 355 And, as he lightly leaped to land, They bade adieu with nod and bow, Then gaily kissed each little hand, And dropped in the crystal deep below.
A moment stayed the fairy there;
He kissed the beach and breathed a prayer;
Then spread his wings of gilded blue,
And on to the elfin court he flew;
As ever ye saw a bubble rise,
And shine with a thousand changing dyes, 365
Till, lessening far, through ether driven,
It mingles with the hues of heaven;
As, at the glimpse of morning pale,
The lance-fly spreads his silken sail.
And gleams with blendings soft and bright,
Till lost in the shades of fading night;
So rose from earth the lovely Fay-
So vanished, far in heaven away!
The moth-fly, as he shot in air, Crept under the leaf, and hid her there; The katy-did forgot its lay,
The prowling gnat fled fast away;
The fell mosquito checked his drone
And folded his wings till the Fay was gone;
And the wily beetle dropped his head,
And fell on the ground as if he were dead;
They crouched them close in the darksome
shade,
They quaked all o'er with awe and fear, 405
For they had felt the blue-bent blade,
And writhed at the prick of the elfin spear.
Many a time on a summer's night,
When the sky was clear and the moon was bright,
They had been roused from the haunted ground
Up to the vaulted firmament
His path the fire-fly courser bent,
And at every gallop on the wind,
He flung a glittering spark behind;
He flies like a feather in the blast
Till the first light cloud in heaven is past.
But the shapes of air have begun their work,
And a drizzly mist is round him cast, 430
He cannot see through the mantle murk,
He shivers with cold but he urges fast;
Through storm and darkness, sleet and shade,
He lashes his steed and spurs amain,
For shadowy hands have twitched the
rein,
fall; The sylphs of heaven were seen to glide, Attired in sunset's crimson pall; Around the Fay they weave the dance,
They skip before him on the plain, And one has taken his wasp-sting lance, 475 And one upholds his bridle-rein;
And flame-shot tongues around him played, And near him many a fiendish eye
The story of his love and woe,
She felt new pains in her bosom rise;
And the tear-drop started in her eyes.
And 'O sweet sprite of earth,' she cried, 515
'Return no more to your woodland height,
But ever here with me abide
In the land of everlasting light!
Within the fleecy drift we'll lie,
We'll hang upon the rainbow's rim; 520 And all the jewels of the sky
Around thy brow shall brightly beam!
And they shall bathe thee in the stream
That rolls its whitening foam aboon,
And ride upon the lightning's gleam,
And dance upon the orbèd moon!
We'll sit within the Pleiad ring,
We'll rest on Orion's starry belt,
And I will bid my sylphs to sing
The song that makes the dew-mist
Their harps are of the umber shade,
That hides the blush of waking day,
And every gleamy string is made
Of silvery moonshine's lengthened ray;
She was lovely and fair to see,
And the elfin's heart beat fitfully;
But lovelier far and still more fair,
The earthly form imprinted there;
Naught he saw in the heavens above
Was half so dear as his mortal love,
For he thought upon her looks so meek, 545
And he thought of the light flush on her
cheek;
Never again might he bask and lie
On that sweet face and moonlight eye,
But in his dreams her form to see,
To clasp her in his revery;
To think upon his virgin bride,
Was worth all heaven, and earth beside.
The star is yet in the vault of heaven, But it rocks in the summer gale; And now 'tis fitful and uneven,
And now 'tis deadly pale;
And now 'tis wrapped in sulphur smoke,
And quenched is its rayless beam,
And now with a rattling thunder-stroke
It bursts in flash and flame.
As swift as the glance of the arrowy lance,
That the storm-spirit flings from high,
The star-shot flew o'er the welkin blue, 595
As it fell from the sheeted sky.
As swift as the wind in its trail behind
The elfin gallops along.
The fiends of the clouds are bellowing loud,
But the sylphid charm is strong;
He gallops unhurt in the shower of fire,
While the cloud-fiends fly from the blaze,
He watches each flake till its sparks expire,
And rides in the light of its rays.
But he drove his steed to the lightning's speed,
And caught a glimmering spark; Then wheeled around to the fairy ground, And sped through the midnight dark.
Ouphe and Goblin! Imp and Sprite!
Elf of eve! and starry Fay!
Ye that love the moon's soft light,
Hither, hither wend your way;
Twine ye in a jocund ring,
Sing and trip it merrily,
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