VI. Faerie.

From the oped lattice glance once more abroad

While the ethereal moontide bathes with light

Hill, stream, and garden, and white-winding road.

All gracious myths born of the shadowy night

Recur, and hover in fantastic guise,

Airy and vague, before the drowsy sight.

On yonder soft gray hill Endymion lies

In rosy slumber, and the moonlit air

Breathes kisses on his cheeks and lips and eyes.

‘ Twixt bush and bush gleam flower-white limbs, left bare,

Of huntress-nymphs, and flying raiment thin,

Vanishing faces, and bright floating hair.

The quaint midsummer fairies and their kin,

Gnomes, elves, and trolls, on blossom, branch, and grass

Gambol and dance, and winding out and in

Leave circles of spun dew where'er they pass.

Through the blue ether the freed Ariel flies;

Enchantment holds the air; a swarming mass

Of myriad dusky, gold-winged dreams arise,

Throng toward the gates of sense, and so possess

The soul, and lull it to forgetfulness.