Lays o’ Faërie
The Fairy Tempter
A fair girl was sitting in the greenwood shade,
List’ning to the music the spring birds made;
When sweeter by far than the birds on the tree,
A voice murmured near her, “Oh! come, Love, with me—
In earth or air,
A thing so fair
I have not seen as thee!
Then come, Love, with me.”
“With a star for thy home, in a palace of light,
Thou will add a fresh grace to the beauty of night;
Or, if wealth be thy wish, thine are treasures untold,
I will show thee the birthplace of jewels and gold gold—
And pearly caves
Beneath the waves,
All these, all these are thine,
If thou will be mine.”
Thus whispered a Fairy to tempt the fair girl,
But vain was his promise of gold and of pearl;
For she said, “Tho’ thy gifts to a poor girl were dear,
My father, my mother, my sisters are here:
Oh! what would be
Thy gifts to me
Of earth, and sea, and air,
If my heart were not there?”
Samuel Lover