Onward still he held his way, Till he came where the column of moonshine lay, And saw beneath the surface dim The brown-backed sturgeon slowly swim:
Around him were the goblin train -
But he sculled with all his might and main, And followed wherever the sturgeon led, Till he saw him upward point his head;Then he dropped his paddle blade, And held his colen goblet up To catch the drop in its crimson cup.
1
With sweeping tail and quivering fin, Through the wave the sturgeon flew, And, like the heaven-shot javelin, He sprug above the waters blue.
Instant as the star-fall light, He plunged him in the deep again, But left an arch of silver bright The rainbow of the moony main.
It was a strange and lovely sight To see the puny goblin there;He seemed an angel form of light, With azure wing and sunny hair, Throned on a cloud of purple fair, Circled with blue and edged with white, And sitting at the fall of even Beneath the bow of summer heaven.
XXII.
A moment and its lustre fell, But ere it met the billow blue, He caught within his crimson bell, A droplet of its sparkling dew -Joy to thee, Fay! thy task is done, Thy wings are pure, for the gem is won -Cheerly ply thy dripping oar, And haste away to the elfin shore.
XXIII.
He turns, and lo! on either side The ripples on his path divide;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 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;And, as he lightly leapt to land, They bade adieu with nod and bow, Then gayly kissed each little hand, And dropped in the crystal deep below.
XXIV.
A moment staied 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, 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!
* * * * * * * * *
Up, Fairy! quit thy chick-weed bower, The cricket has called the second hour, Twice again, and the lark will rise To kiss the streaking of the skies -Up! thy charmed armour don, Thou'lt need it ere the night be gone.
XXV.
He put his acorn helmet on;
It was plumed of the silk of the thistle down:
The corslet plate that guarded his breast Was once the wild bee's golden vest;His cloak, of a thousand mingled dyes, Was formed of the wings of butterflies;His shield was the shell of a lady-bug queen, Studs of gold on a ground of green;And the quivering lance which he brandished bright, Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight.
Swift he bestrode his fire-fly steed;
He bared his blade of the bent grass blue;He drove his spurs of the cockle seed, And away like a glance of thought he flew, To skim the heavens and follow far The fiery trail of the rocket-star.
XXVI.
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 mosqueto 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, 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, By the yelp and bay of the fairy hound;They had heard the tiny bugle horn, They had heard of twang of the maize-silk string, When the vine-twig bows were tightly drawn, And the nettle-shaft through the air was borne, Feathered with down the hum-bird's wing.
And now they deemed the courier ouphe, Some hunter sprite of the elfin ground;And they watched till they saw him mount the roof That canopies the world around;Then glad they left their covert lair, And freaked about in the midnight air.
XXVII.
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, 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, And flame-shot tongues around him played, And near him many a fiendish eye Glared with a fell malignity, And yells of rage, and shrieks of fear, Came screaming on his startled ear.
XXVIII.
His wings are wet around his breast, The plume hangs dripping from his crest, His eyes are blur'd with the lightning's glare, And his ears are stunned with the thunder's blare, But he gave a shout, and his blade he drew, He thrust before and he struck behind, Till he pierced their cloudy bodies through, And gashed their shadowy limbs of wind;Howling the misty spectres flew, They rend the air with frightful cries, For he has gained the welkin blue, And the land of clouds beneath him lies.
XXIX.
Up to the cope careering swift In breathless motion fast, Fleet as the swallow cuts the drift, Or the sea-roc rides the blast, The sapphire sheet of eve is shot, The sphered moon is past, The earth but seems a tiny blot On a sheet of azure cast.
O! it was sweet in the clear moonlight, To tread the starry plain of even, To meet the thousand eyes of night, And feel the cooling breath of heaven!
But the Elfin made no stop or stay Till he came to the bank of the milky-way, Then he checked his courser's foot, And watched for the glimpse of the planet-shoot.
XXX.
