And Mab, the moonlight queen of elves
Took solemn counsel with themselves.
'Twas in the early summer days
They met at twilight all the fays,
Under a grove with fronded plumes,
Whose trees were white with spikes of blooms.
With elfin lance of wild-bee sting
Stood Oberon, at the outer ring.
His knights each wore upon his breast
A firefly lamp in beetle's vest.
With glow-worm crown of greenish light,
Sitting her fairy palfrey white,
The queen, by wave of saffron brand,
Hushed into silence fairyland.
Then with her sandaled foot she pricked
Her wasp-sting spur (and palfrey kicked!)—
Her moonbeam bridle firm in grip,
She plied the silken milkweed whip,
And rode straight up the waiting tree,
And out each branch its blooms to see.