Among the shivering blossoms, so
Among the Elves upstarted
A wail of voices small and shrill,
That swelled and sank commingled, still
Lamenting o’er their present ill
Or ancient bliss departed.
First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue
Renowned his Faery feres among,
Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,
Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:
“It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),
“To bid you ’ware the direful dread,
By gathering glooms and shadows spread,
Wherewith our days are darkened.
“But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er
The eyes to blind and feet to snare,
That else a path would find and fare
From forth its grim embrasure,
Behoves us seek from whence they flit,
These shades that on our lives have lit,
For so, perchance, a way we hit,
Back to the beamy azure.
“Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,
Here let us pause and ask ourselves
Why this one hews, why that one delves,
Finch waking, chafer whirring.
What graceless freak of spiteful change
Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,
Who wont down all the dells to range
Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?
“What joy have ye to cleave the clod,
Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,
Or down the creaking cart-track plod,
Or up the ladder dizzy?
Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,
This piteous plight declares ye must
Lament the charge upon you thrust
That makes you bondslaves busy.
“Where now be flown the mirthful hours
Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?
Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,
Gay sports on greensward airy?
Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,
Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?
Have these things now no more delights
For heart of woodland Faery?
“But if one saith: ‘The King commands
This irksome service at our hands,
And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,
Lest traitorous act accuse him’—
To such: The ancient laws (I say),
Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,
Point duly where we must obey,
And where, unblamed, refuse him.
“Since for this cause we crowned his head:
That long as Elfin sports be sped,
He still should rule the maze we tread,
When every Faery traces
On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;
Even as the planet lamps that swing
In shimmering cirques around their King,
Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.
“Hence, if for us he prove indeed
No sun-bright orb our step to lead,
But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,
That traveller’s foot betrayeth,
Shall we our lightsome paths forsake
Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,
Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,
Lured as his false gleam playeth?