Fairies.
When breezes sleep1
In the purple folds of the murmuring deep,2
And the silver kiss3
Of the high moon plays on the glen’s abyss,4
And bright-tracked stars5
Suddenly shoot from their ebon cars6
To the Nymphs that dance7
On a pavement of glass in the sea’s expanse ;8
When the soft Night doth seem9
Sound in the arms of Silence to dream,10
Then Fairies rove11
By the solemn hills through field and grove,12
To the moonbeam glide,13
Or upward and down on the swell’s smooth tide,14
Or print the green ;15
Till sceptred Aurora, the Northern Queen,16
To watch them play,17
On her rosed and lightning plumes will stay,18
And their mazes, light19
As the iris that flies from the foam-cloud white,20
Such harmony win21
From whispering trees, and sedge-grown linn,22
And sighing cave,23
That Sorrow doth listen, and cease to rave.24