Yes! she will wake again, Although her glowing limbs are motionless, And silent those sweet lips, Once breathing eloquence

That might have soothed a tiger's rage Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror. Her dewy eyes are closed,

And on their lids, whose texture fine Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath,

The baby Sleep is pillowed;

Her golden tresses shade The bosom's stainless pride, Curling like tendrils of the parasite Around a marble column.

40

Hark! whence that rushing sound?
'Tis like the wondrous strain
That round a lonely ruin swells,
Which, wandering on the echoing shore,
The enthusiast hears at evening;

Are such as may not find
Comparison on earth.

Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen!
Celestial coursers paw the unyielding

air;

6c

Their filmy pennons at her word they

furl,

And stop obedient to the reins of light;
These the Queen of Spells drew in;
She spread a charm around the spot,
And, leaning graceful from the ethereal

car,

Long did she gaze, and silently,

Upon the slumbering maid.

Oh! not the visioned poet in his dreams, When silvery clouds float through the wildered brain,

When every sight of lovely, wild and grand

Astonishes, enraptures, elevates,

When fancy at a glance combines The wondrous and the beautiful, So bright, so fair, so wild a shape Hath ever yet beheld,

70

As that which reined the coursers of the

air

And poured the magic of her gaze
Upon the maiden's sleep.

The broad and yellow moon
Shone dimly through her form-
That form of faultless symmetry;
The pearly and pellucid car

Moved not the moonlight's line. 'T was not an earthly pageant. Those, who had looked upon the sight Passing all human glory, Saw not the yellow moon, Saw not the mortal scene, Heard not the night-wind's rush, Heard not an earthly sound, Saw but the fairy pageant, Heard but the heavenly strains That filled the lonely dwelling.

80

90

That gems the glittering coronet of morn, Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, 100 As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form,

Spread a purpureal halo round the scene,

Yet with an undulating motion,
Swayed to her outline gracefully.

From her celestial car
The Fairy Queen descended,
And thrice she waved her wand
Circled with wreaths of amaranth;
Her thin and misty form
Moved with the moving air,
And the clear silver tones,
As thus she spoke, were such
As are unheard by all but gifted ear.

FAIRY

'Stars! your balmiest influence shed! Elements! your wrath suspend! Sleep, Ocean, in the rocky bounds That circle thy domain !

110

Let not a breath be seen to stir
Around yon grass-grown ruin's height !
Let even the restless gossamer
Sleep on the moveless air!

120

Upon the couch the body lay, Wrapt in the depth of slumber; Its features were fixed and meaningless, Yet animal life was there,

140

'Do I dream? Is this new feeling But a visioned ghost of slumber? If indeed I am a soul,

A free, a disembodied soul,
Speak again to me.'

FAIRY

161