Culprit Fay and Other Poems | Page 7

even
That
ne'er have left their native heaven.
XXXII.

She raised her eyes to the wondering sprite,
And they leapt with

smiles, for well I ween
Never before in the bowers of light
Had the
form of an earthly Fay been seen.
Long she looked in his tiny face;

Long with his butterfly cloak she played;
She smoothed his wings of
azure lace,
And handled the tassel of his blade;
And as he told in
accents low
The story of his love and wo,
She felt new pains in her
bosom rise,
And the tear-drop started in her eyes.
And 'O sweet
spirit of earth,' she cried,
'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;
And all
the jewels of the sky
Around thy brow shall brightly beam!
And
thou shalt bathe thee in the stream
That rolls its whitening foam
aboon,
And ride upon the lightning's gleam,
And dance upon the
orbed 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 melt;
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;
And thou shalt pillow on my
breast,
While heavenly breathings float around,
And, with the
sylphs of ether blest,
Forget the joys of fairy ground.'
XXXIII.
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;

Nought he saw in the heavens above
Was half so dear as his mortal
love,

For he thought upon her looks so meek,
And he thought of the
light flush on her cheek;
Never again might he bask and lie
On that
sweet cheek and moonlight eye,
But in his dreams her form to see,

To clasp her in his reverie,
To think upon his virgin bride,
Was
worth all heaven and earth beside.
XXXIV.
'Lady,' he cried, 'I have sworn to-night,
On the word of a fairy knight,


To do my sentence-task aright;
My honour scarce is free from stain,

I may not soil its snows again;
Betide me weal, betide me wo,
Its
mandate must be answered now.'
Her bosom heaved with many a
sigh,
The tear was in her drooping eye;
But she led him to the
palace gate,
And called the sylphs who hovered there,
And bade
them fly and bring him straight
Of clouds condensed a sable car.

With charm and spell she blessed it there,
From all the fiends of
upper air;
Then round him cast the shadowy shroud,
And tied his
steed behind the cloud;
And pressed his hand as she bade him fly

Far to the verge of the northern sky,
For by its wane and wavering
light
There was a star would fall to-night.
XXXV.
Borne after on the wings of the blast,
Northward away, he speeds him
fast,
And his courser follows the cloudy wain
Till the hoof-strokes
fall like pattering rain.
The clouds roll backward as he flies,
Each
flickering star behind him lies,
And he has reached the northern plain,

And backed his fire-fly steed again,
Ready to follow in its flight

The streaming of the rocket-light.
XXXVI.
The star is yet in the vault of heaven,
But its rocks in the summer gale;

And now 'tis fitful and uneven,
And now 'tis deadly pale;
And
now 'tis wrapp'd 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,
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 the jocund ring,
Sing and trip it merrily,
Hand to hand,
and wing to wing,
Round the wild witch-hazel tree.
Hail the wanderer again,
With dance and song, and lute and lyre,

Pure his wing and strong his chain,
And doubly bright his fairy fire.

Twine ye in an airy round,
Brush the dew and print the lea;
Skip
and gambol, hop and bound,
Round the wild witch-hazel tree.
The beetle guards our holy ground,
He flies about the haunted place,

And if mortal there be found,
He hums in his ears and flaps his
face;
The leaf-harp sounds our roundelay,
The owlet's eyes our
lanterns be;
Thus we sing, and dance and play,
Round the wild
witch-hazel tree.
But hark! from tower on tree-top high,
The sentry elf his call has
made,
A streak is in the eastern sky,
Shapes of moonlight! flit and
fade!
The hill-tops gleam in morning's spring,
The sky-lark shakes
his dappled wing,
The day-glimpse glimmers on the lawn,
The cock