IV.
One night, when the moon shone fair on the main,
Choice spirits were gathered from meadow and plain—
And lightly embarking from Erin's bold cliffs,
They slid o'er the wave in their moonbeam skiffs.
A ray for a rudder—a thought for a sail—
Swift, swift was each bark as the wing of the gale.
| Voyage of the Fairies | Yet long were the tale, Should I linger to say What gambol and frolic Enlivened the way; How they flirted with bubbles That danced on the wave, Or listened to mermaids That sang from the cave; Or slid with the moonbeams Down deep to the grove Of coral, where mullet And goldfish rove: How there, in long vistas Of silence and sleep, They waltzed, as if mocking The death of the deep: How, oft, where the wreck Lay scattered and torn, They peeped in the skull, All ghastly and lorn; Or deep, 'mid wild rocks, Quizzed the goggling shark, And mouthed at the sea-wolf, So solemn and stark; Each seeming to think That the earth and the sea Were made but for fairies, For gambol and glee! |
V.
Enough, that at last they came to the Isle,