Two Fairies in a Garden
1. “Whither goest, brother Elf?”
2. “The sun is weak—to warm myself
In a thick red tulip’s core.
Whither thou?”
1. “Till day be o’er,
To the dim and deep snow-palace
Of the closest lily-chalice,
Where is veil’d the light of noon
To be like my Lady’s moon.
Thou art of the day, I ween?”
2. “Yet I not disown our Queen,
Nor at Lysc’ am backward found,
When the mighty Feast comes round;
When She spreads abroad her power
To proclaim a midnight hour
For the pale blue Fays like thee
And the ruddy Elves like me
To mingle in a charmèd ring
With a perfect welcoming;
Guarded from the moon-stroke cold,
And wisp that scares us on the wold.”
1. “Swift that Night is drawing near,
When your abrupt and jovial cheer,
Mixes in our misty dance,
Meeting else by rarest chance.
We love dark undew’d recesses
Of the leafy wildernesses,
Or to hide in some cold flow’r,
Shelter’d from the sunlight hour,
And more afflictive mortal eye.”
2. “Gladly, gladly, do I spy
Human children playing nigh,
Feel, and so must you, the grace
Of a loving human face.
Else why come you in this place?
O, my Sister, if we might
Show ourselves to mortal sight
Far more often! if they knew
Half the friendly turns we do!
Even now, a gentle thought
Would pay my service dimly wrought,
Round these winding garden-walks,
Fruits and flow’rs and leaves and stalks.
Paler favourites of the noon,
Can ye give or take such boon?”
1. “Chantings, Brother, hear you might,
Softly sung through still of night;
Calling from the wëird North
Dreams like distant echoes forth,
Till through curtain’d shades they creep,
To inlay the gloomy floor of sleep
For babes, and souls that babe-like are:
So we bless them from afar
Like a faint but favouring star.
—But tell me how in fields or bowers
Thou hast spent these morning hours?”
2. “Through the tall hedge I have been,
Shadowy wall of crusted green,
Within whose heart the birds are seen.
Speeding swiftly thence away
To the crowning chestnut-spray,
I watch’d a Tyrant steal along
Would slay the sweet Thrush in her song;
Warned, she soon broke off from singing,
There we left the branchlet swinging.
Whispering Robin, down the walk,
News of poising, pouncing Hawk,
The Sycamore I next must strew
On every leaf with honey-dew.
And hither now from clouds I run,
For all my morning work is done.”
1. “Alas, I wither in the sun,
Witless drawn to leave my nest
Ere the day be laid to rest!
But to-night we lightly troop
By the young Moon’s silver hoop;
Weaving wide our later ranks
As on evening river-banks
Shifting crowds of midges glance
Through mazes of their airy dance:
O might you come, O might you see
All our shadow’d revelry!
Yet the next night shall be rarer,
Next and next and next, still fairer;
We are waxing every night,
Till our joy be full and bright;
Then as slowly do we wane
With gentle loss that makes no pain,
For thus are we with life endued:
Ye, I trow, have rougher food.”
2. “Yes: with fragrant soul we’re fed
Of every flower whose cheek is red,
Shunning yellow, blue, and white;
And southward go, at the nightingale’s flight.
Many the Faery Nations be.
Oh! how I long, I long to see
The moonèd midnight of our Feast,
Flushing amber through the east,
When every cap in Elfindom
Into that great ring shall come,
Owf and Elf and Fairy blended.
Till th’ imperial time be ended!
Even those fantastic Sprites
Lay aside their dear delights
Of freakish mischief and annoyance
In the universal joyance,
One of whom I saw of late
As I peep’d through window-grate,
(Under roof I may not enter)
Haunt the housewife to torment her,
Tangle up her skeins of silk,
Throw a mouse into her milk,
Hide her thimble, scorch her roast,
Quickly drive her mad almost;
And I too vex’d, because I would
Have brought her succour if I could.
—But where shall this be holden, say?
Far away?”
1. “O, far away,
Over river must we fly,
Over the sea, and the mountain high,
Over city, seen afar
Like a low and misty star,—
Soon beneath us glittering
Like million spark-worms. But our wing,
For the flight will ne’er suffice.
Some are training Flittermice,
I a Silver Moth.”
2. “Be ware
How I’ll thrid the vaulted air!
A Dragon-fly with glassy wings,
Born beside the meadow-springs,
That can arrow-swiftly glide
Thorough the glowing eventide,
Nor at twilight-fall grow slack,
Shall bear me on his long blue back.
Dew-stars, meteors of the night,
May not strike him with affright,
He can needle through the wood,
That’s like a green earth-chainèd cloud,
Mountain-summits deftly rake,
Draw swift line o’er plain and lake.
If at Lysco I be last,
Other elves must journey fast.
Lu a vo!”
1. “But, Elf, I rede,
Of all your Herbs take special heed.
Our Mistress tholes no garden flowers,
Though we have freedom of these bowers.
Tell me what you mean to treasure,
Each in ’s atom?”
2. “Gold-of-Pleasure,
Medic, Plumeseed, Fountain-arrow,
Vervain, Hungry-grass, and Yarrow,
Quatrefoil and Melilot.”
1. “These are well. And I have got
Moonwort and the Filmy Fern,
Gather’d nicely on the turn.
Wo to Fairy that shall bring
Bugloss for an offering,
Toad-flax, Barley of the Wall,
Enchanter’s Nightshade, worst of all.
—Oh, brother, hush! I faint with fear!
A mortal footstep threatens near.”
2. “None can see us, none can hear.
Yet, to make thee less afraid,
Hush we both as thou hast pray’d.
I will seek the verse to spell
Written round my dark flow’r’s bell,
To sing at sunset. So, Farewell!”
William Allingham.