They swim around with smile and song; XXIV. A moment staied the fairy there; He kissed the beach and breathed a prayer, Then spread his wings of gilded blue, And on to the elfin court he flew ; As ever ye saw a bubble rise, And shine with a thousand changing dyes, So vanished, far in heaven away! Up, Fairy! quit thy chick-weed bower, XXV. He put his acorn helmet on; It was plumed of the silk of the thistle down: And the quivering lance which he brandished bright, Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight. Swift he bestrode his fire-fly steed; He bared his blade of the bent grass blue; He drove his spurs of the cockle seed, And away like a glance of thought he flew, To skim the heavens and follow far The fiery trail of the rocket-star. XXVI. The moth-fly, as he shot in air, Crept under the leaf, and hid her there; The prowling gnat fled fast away, The fell mosqueto checked his drone For they had felt the blue-bent blade, And writhed at the prick of the elfin spear; When the sky was clear and the moon was bright, They had heard the twang of the maize-silk string, And now they deemed the courier ouphe, And they watched till they saw him mount the roof Then glad they left their covert lair, XXVII. Up to the vaulted firmament Till the first light cloud in heaven is past, But the shapes of air have begun their work, And a drizzly mist is round him cast, He cannot see through the mantle murk, He shivers with cold, but he urges fast, Through storm and darkness, sleet and shade, He lashes his steed and spurs amain, For shadowy hands have twitched the rein, And near him many a fiendish eye Glared with a fell malignity, And yells of rage, and shrieks of fear, XXVIII. His wings are wet around his breast, And his ears are stunned with the thunder's blare, Till he pierced their cloudy bodies through, They rend the air with frightful cries, And the land of clouds beneath him lies. XXIX. Up to the cope careering swift In breathless motion fast, Fleet as the swallow cuts the drift, Or the sea-roc rides the blast, |