Sudden along the snowy tide That swelled to meet their footstep's fall, The sylphs of heaven were seen to glide, Attired in sunset's crimson pall;Around the Fay they weave the dance, They skip before him on the plain, And one has taken his wasp-sting lance, And one upholds his bridle rein;With warblings wild they lead him on To where through clouds of amber seen, Studded with stars, resplendent shone The palace of the sylphid queen.
Its spiral columns gleaming bright Were streamers of the northern light;Its curtain's light and lovely flush Was of the morning's rosy blush, And the ceiling fair that rose aboon The white and feathery fleece of noon.
XXXI.
But oh! how fair the shape that lay Beneath a rainbow bending bright, She seemed to the entranced Fay The loveliest of the forms of light;Her mantle was the purple rolled At twilight in the west afar;'Twas tied with threads of dawning gold, And buttoned with a sparkling star.
Her face was like the lily roon That veils the vestal planet's hue;Her eyes, two beamlets from the moon, Set floating in the welkin blue.
Her hair is like the sunny beam, And the diamond gems which round it gleam Are the pure drops of dewy even That ne'er have left their native heaven.
XXXII.
She raised her eyes to the wondering sprite, And they leapt with smiles, for well I ween Never before in the bowers of light Had the form of an earthly Fay been seen.
Long she looked in his tiny face;
Long with his butterfly cloak she played;She smoothed his wings of azure lace, And handled the tassel of his blade;And as he told in accents low The story of his love and wo, She felt new pains in her bosom rise, And the tear-drop started in her eyes.
And 'O sweet spirit of earth,' she cried, 'Return no more to your woodland height, But ever here with me abide In the land of everlasting light!
Within the fleecy drift we'll lie, We'll hang upon the rainbow's rim;And all the jewels of the sky Around thy brow shall brightly beam!
And thou shalt bathe thee in the stream That rolls its whitening foam aboon, And ride upon the lightning's gleam, And dance upon the orbed moon!
We'll sit within the Pleiad ring, We'll rest on Orion's starry belt, And I will bid my sylphs to sing The song that makes the dew-mist melt;Their harps are of the umber shade, That hides the blush of waking day, And every gleamy string is made Of silvery moonshine's lengthened ray;And thou shalt pillow on my breast, While heavenly breathings float around, And, with the sylphs of ether blest, Forget the joys of fairy ground.'
XXXIII.
She was lovely and fair to see And the elfin's heart beat fitfully;But lovelier far, and still more fair, The earthly form imprinted there;Nought he saw in the heavens above Was half so dear as his mortal love, For he thought upon her looks so meek, And he thought of the light flush on her cheek;Never again might he bask and lie On that sweet cheek and moonlight eye, But in his dreams her form to see, To clasp her in his reverie, To think upon his virgin bride, Was worth all heaven and earth beside.
XXXIV.
