The Plea Of The Midsummer Fairies.[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDD A EFEFFGFHG A ICIJJCJCC K LMLMMDMDD K CJCJNDJDD K OCOCCPCPP K ICICCQCQQ K HCHCCCCCC C RGRGGSGSS C TITMICICC C UVUVVWVWW C CHCHCVHVV C XJXJJCJCC K QCQCCCCCC K YV VVVVVV K VDVDZA2DA2A2 K QB2QB2B2CB2CC K VVVVVKVKK C C2QC2QQB2QB2B2 C VYVYYCYCC C YVBVVCVCC C DVDVVDVDD C DB2DB2B2D2B2D2D2 K B2DB2DDCDCC K DE2DE2E2VE2VV K E2VE2VVF2VF2G2 K CCCCCCCCC K H2QH2QQVQVV C CCCCCDCDD C CB2CB2B2B2B2B2B2 C CVCVVQVQQ C KVKVVE2VE2E2 C QQQQQI2QI2I2 K DE2DE2E2C CC K CQCQQJQJJ K CB2CB2B2J2B2C2C2 K B2VB2VVDVDD K QVQVVCVCC C KCKCCVCVV E2 CKCKKCKCC E2 CVCVVE2VE2E2 E2 KCKCCB2CB2B2 E2 KB2KB2B2D2B2D2D2 K CVCVV VDD K CVCVVVVVV K B2VB2VVK2VK2K2 K VB2VB2B2VB2VV K VCVCCKCKK C E2VE2VVB2VB2B2 E2 CCCCCQCQQ E2 E2KE2KKE2KE2E2 K CKCKKB2KB2B2 K CCCCCQC Q K E2KE2KKVKVV K KVKVVVVVV K CCCCCCCCC K KQKQQCQCC K VCVCCECEE C VB2VB2B2CB2CC C CKCKKCKCC C VB2VB2B2QB2QQ C CVCVVVVVV C CVCVVCVCC E XL2XL2L2CL2CC E VKVKKB2KB2B2 E DKDKKKKKK E KCKCCVCVV E VVVVVB2VB2B2 C VCVCCDCDD C CKCKKDKDD C M2B2M2B2B2QB2Q C CECEEVEVV C KCKCCCCCC E VCVCCCCCC E KB2KB2B2CB2CC E VVVVVCVCC E B2QB2QQEQEE E CB2CB2B2CB2CC C VCVCCB2CB2B2 C QQQQQCQCC C M2KM2KKVKVV C CCCCCVCVV C B2DB2DDCDCC E VVVVVVVVV E CCCCCVCVV E VQVQQL2QL2L2 E VEVEEQEQQ E KQKQQKQKK C EVEVVCVCC Q QCQCCKCKK C KVKVVVVVV C CKCKKB2KB2B2 C VEVEEN2EN2N2 E VM2VM2M2QM2QQ E O2B2P2B2B2KB2KK E M2VM2VVKVKK E B2VB2VVVVVV E CN2CN2N2CN2CC C VQ2VR2Q2KS2KK K CKCKKDKDD C VCVCCVCVV C B2DB2DDVDVV C KVKVVVVVV K VB2VB2B2B2B2B2B2 K KB2KB2B2VB2VV K DCDCCB2CB2B2 K CCCCCCCCC K KN2KN2N2KN2KK C KKKKKVKVV C QCQCCCCCC C KCKCCQCQQ C B2CB2CCVCVV C VL2VL2L2VL2VV K KKKKKCKCC K B2VB2VVCVCC K KDKDDCDCC K QKQKKT2KT2T2 K VKVKKDKDD C VVVVVB2VB2B2 C DVDVVEVEE C CVCVVB2VB2B2 C DVDVVCVCC C KCKCCCCCC K VVVVVB2VB2B2 K VVVVVDVDD K CDCDDVDVVI | A |
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'Twas in that mellow season of the year | B |
When the hot sun singes the yellow leaves | C |
Till they be gold and with a broader sphere | B |
The Moon looks down on Ceres and her sheaves | C |
When more abundantly the spider weaves | C |
And the cold wind breathes from a chillier clime | D |
That forth I fared on one of those still eves | C |
Touch'd with the dewy sadness of the time | D |
To think how the bright months had spent their prime | D |
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II | A |
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So that wherever I address'd my way | E |
I seem'd to track the melancholy feet | F |
Of him that is the Father of Decay | E |
And spoils at once the sour weed and the sweet | F |
Wherefore regretfully I made retreat | F |
To some unwasted regions of my brain | G |
Charm'd with the light of summer and the heat | F |
And bade that bounteous season bloom again | H |
And sprout fresh flowers in mine own domain | G |
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III | A |
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It was a shady and sequester'd scene | I |
Like those famed gardens of Boccaccio | C |
Planted with his own laurels evergreen | I |
And roses that for endless summer blow | J |
And there were fountain springs to overflow | J |
Their marble basins and cool green arcades | C |
Of tall o'erarching sycamores to throw | J |
Athwart the dappled path their dancing shades | C |
With timid coneys cropping the green blades | C |
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IV | K |
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And there were crystal pools peopled with fish | L |
Argent and gold and some of Tyrian skin | M |
Some crimson barr'd and ever at a wish | L |
They rose obsequious till the wave grew thin | M |
As glass upon their backs and then dived in | M |
Quenching their ardent scales in watery gloom | D |
Whilst others with fresh hues row'd forth to win | M |
My changeable regard for so we doom | D |
Things born of thought to vanish or to bloom | D |
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V | K |
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And there were many birds of many dyes | C |
From tree to tree still faring to and fro | J |
And stately peacocks with their splendid eyes | C |
And gorgeous pheasants with their golden glow | J |
Like Iris just bedabbled in her bow | N |
Beside some vocalists without a name | D |
That oft on fairy errands come and go | J |
With accents magical and all were tame | D |
And peckled at my hand where'er I came | D |
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VI | K |
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And for my sylvan company in lieu | O |
Of Pampinea with her lively peers | C |
Sate Queen Titania with her pretty crew | O |
All in their liveries quaint with elfin gears | C |
For she was gracious to my childish years | C |
And made me free of her enchanted round | P |
Wherefore this dreamy scene she still endears | C |
And plants her court upon a verdant mound | P |
Fenced with umbrageous woods and groves profound | P |
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VII | K |
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Ah me she cries was ever moonlight seen | I |
So clear and tender for our midnight trips | C |
Go some one forth and with a trump convene | I |
My lieges all Away the goblin skips | C |
A pace or two apart and deftly strips | C |
The ruddy skin from a sweet rose's cheek | Q |
Then blows the shuddering leaf between his lips | C |
Making it utter forth a shrill small shriek | Q |
Like a fray'd bird in the gray owlet's beak | Q |
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VIII | K |
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And lo upon my fix'd delighted ken | H |
Appear'd the loyal Fays Some by degrees | C |
Crept from the primrose buds that open'd then | H |
Ana some from bell shaped blossoms like the bees | C |
Some from the dewy meads and rushy leas | C |
Flew up like chafers when the rustics pass | C |
Some from the rivers others from tall trees | C |
Dropp'd like shed blossoms silent to the grass | C |
Spirits and elfins small of every class | C |
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IX | C |
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Peri and Pixy and quaint Puck the Antic | R |
Brought Robin Goodfellow that merry swain | G |
And stealthy Mab queen of old realms romantic | R |
Came too from distance in her tiny wain | G |
Fresh dripping from a cloud some bloomy rain | G |
Then circling the bright Moon had wash'd her car | S |
And still bedew'd it with a various stain | G |
Lastly came Ariel shooting from a star | S |
Who bears all fairy embassies afar | S |
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X | C |
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But Oberon that night elsewhere exiled | T |
Was absent whether some distemper'd spleen | I |
Kept him and his fair mate unreconciled | T |
Or warfare with the Gnome whose race had been | M |
Sometime obnoxious kept him from his queen | I |
And made her now peruse the starry skies | C |
Prophetical with such an absent mien | I |
Howbeit the tears stole often to her eyes | C |
And oft the Moon was incensed with her sighs | C |
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XI | C |
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Which made the elves sport drearily and soon | U |
Their hushing dances languish'd to a stand | V |
Like midnight leaves when as the Zephyrs swoon | U |
All on their drooping stems they sink unfann'd | V |
So into silence droop'd the fairy band | V |
To see their empress dear so pale and still | W |
Crowding her softly round on either hand | V |
As pale as frosty snowdrops and as chill | W |
To whom the sceptred dame reveals her ill | W |
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XII | C |
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Alas quoth she ye know our fairy lives | C |
Are leased upon the fickle faith of men | H |
Not measured out against Fate's mortal knives | C |
Like human gosamers we perish when | H |
We fade and are forgot in worldly kens | C |
Though poesy has thus prolong'd our date | V |
Thanks be to the sweet Bard's auspicious pen | H |
That rescued us so long howbeit of late | V |
I feel some dark misgivings of our fate | V |
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XIII | C |
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And this dull day my melancholy sleep | X |
Hath been so thronged with images of woe | J |
That even now I cannot choose but weep | X |
To think this was some sad prophetic show | J |
Of future horror to befall us so | J |
Of mortal wreck and uttermost distress | C |
Yea our poor empire's fall and overthrow | J |
For this was my long vision's dreadful stress | C |
And when I waked my trouble was not less | C |
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XIV | K |
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Whenever to the clouds I tried to seek | Q |
Such leaden weight dragg'd these Icarian wings | C |
My faithless wand was wavering and weak | Q |
And slimy toads had trespass'd in our rings | C |
The birds refused to sing for me all things | C |
Disown'd their old allegiance to our spells | C |
The rude bees prick'd me with their rebel stings | C |
And when I pass'd the valley lily's bells | C |
Rang out methought most melancholy knells | C |
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XV | K |
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And ever on the faint and flagging air | Y |
A doleful spirit with a dreary note | V |
Cried in my fearful ear 'Prepare prepare ' | - |
Which soon I knew came from a raven's throat | V |
Perch'd on a cypress bough not far remote | V |
A cursed bird too crafty to be shot | V |
That alway cometh with his soot black coat | V |
To make hearts dreary for he is a blot | V |
Upon the book of life as well ye wot | V |
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XVI | K |
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Wherefore some while I bribed him to be mute | V |
With bitter acorns stuffing his foul maw | D |
Which barely I appeased when some fresh bruit | V |
Startled me all aheap and soon I saw | D |
The horridest shape that ever raised my awe | Z |
A monstrous giant very huge and tall | A2 |
Such as in elder times devoid of law | D |
With wicked might grieved the primeval ball | A2 |
And this was sure the deadliest of them all | A2 |
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XVII | K |
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Gaunt was he as a wolf of Languedoc | Q |
With bloody jaws and frost upon his crown | B2 |
So from his barren poll one hoary lock | Q |
Over his wrinkled front fell far adown | B2 |
Well nigh to where his frosty brows did frown | B2 |
Like jagged icicles at cottage eaves | C |
And for his coronal he wore some brown | B2 |
And bristled ears gather'd from Ceres' sheaves | C |
Entwined with certain sere and russet leaves | C |
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XVIII | K |
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And lo upon a mast rear'd far aloft | V |
He bore a very bright and crescent blade | V |
The which he waved so dreadfully and oft | V |
In meditative spite that sore dismay'd | V |
I crept into an acorn cup for shade | V |
Meanwhile the horrid effigy went by | K |
I trow his look was dreadful for it made | V |
The trembling birds betake them to the sky | K |
For every leaf was lifted by his sigh | K |
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XIX | C |
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And ever as he sigh'd his foggy breath | C2 |
Blurr'd out the landscape like a flight of smoke | Q |
Thence knew I this was either dreary Death | C2 |
Or Time who leads all creatures to his stroke | Q |
Ah wretched me Here even as she spoke | Q |
The melancholy Shape came gliding in | B2 |
And lean'd his back against an antique oak | Q |
Folding his wings that were so fine and thin | B2 |
They scarce were seen against the Dryad's skin | B2 |
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XX | C |
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Then what a fear seized all the little rout | V |
Look how a flock of panick'd sheep will stare | Y |
And huddle close and start and wheel about | V |
Watching the roaming mongrel here and there | Y |
So did that sudden Apparition scare | Y |
All close aheap those small affrighted things | C |
Nor sought they now the safety of the air | Y |
As if some leaden spell withheld their wings | C |
But who can fly that ancientest of Kings | C |
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XXI | C |
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Whom now the Queen with a forestalling tear | Y |
And previous sigh beginneth to entreat | V |
Bidding him spare for love her lieges dear | B |
Alas quoth she is there no nodding wheat | V |
Ripe for thy crooked weapon and more meet | V |
Or wither'd leaves to ravish from the tree | C |
Or crumbling battlements for thy defeat | V |
Think but what vaunting monuments there be | C |
Builded in spite and mockery of thee | C |
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XXII | C |
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O fret away the fabric walls of Fame | D |
And grind down marble C sars with the dust | V |
Make tombs inscriptionless raze each high name | D |
And waste old armors of renown with rust | V |
Do all of this and thy revenge is just | V |
Make such decays the trophies of thy prime | D |
And check Ambition's overweening lust | V |
That dares exterminating war with Time | D |
But we are guiltless of that lofty crime | D |
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XXIII | C |
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Frail feeble spirits the children of a dream | D |
Leased on the sufferance of fickle men | B2 |
Like motes dependent on the sunny beam | D |
Living but in the sun's indulgent ken | B2 |
And when that light withdraws withdrawing then | B2 |
So do we flutter in the glance of youth | D2 |
And fervid fancy and so perish when | B2 |
The eye of faith grows aged in sad truth | D2 |
Feeling thy sway O Time though not thy tooth | D2 |
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XXIV | K |
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Where be those old divinities forlorn | B2 |
That dwelt in trees or haunted in a stream | D |
Alas their memories are dimm'd and torn | B2 |
Like the remainder tatters of a dream | D |
So will it fare with our poor thrones I deem | D |
For us the same dark trench Oblivion delves | C |
That holds the wastes of every human scheme | D |
O spare us then and these our pretty elves | C |
We soon alas shall perish of ourselves | C |
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XXV | K |
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Now as she ended with a sigh to name | D |
Those old Olympians scatter'd by the whirl | E2 |
Of Fortune's giddy wheel and brought to shame | D |
Methought a scornful and malignant curl | E2 |
Show'd on the lips of that malicious churl | E2 |
To think what noble havocs he had made | V |
So that I fear'd he all at once would hurl | E2 |
The harmless fairies into endless shade | V |
Howbeit he stopp'd awhile to whet his blade | V |
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XXVI | K |
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Pity it was to hear the elfins' wail | E2 |
Rise up in concert from their mingled dread | V |
Pity it was to see them all so pale | E2 |
Gaze on the grass as for a dying bed | V |
But Puck was seated on a spider's thread | V |
That hung between two branches of a briar | F2 |
And 'gan to swing and gambol heels o'er head | V |
Like any Southwark tumbler on a wire | F2 |
For him no present grief could long inspire | G2 |
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XXVII | K |
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Meanwhile the Queen with many piteous drops | C |
Falling like tiny sparks full fast and free | C |
Bedews a pathway from her throne and stops | C |
Before the foot of her arch enemy | C |
And with her little arms enfolds his knee | C |
That shows more grisly from that fair embrace | C |
But she will ne'er depart Alas quoth she | C |
My painful fingers I will here enlace | C |
Till I have gain'd your pity for our race | C |
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XXVIII | K |
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What have we ever done to earn this grudge | H2 |
And hate if not too humble for thy hating | Q |
Look o'er our labors and our lives and judge | H2 |
If there be any ills of our creating | Q |
For we are very kindly creatures dating | Q |
With nature's charities still sweet and bland | V |
O think this murder worthy of debating | Q |
Herewith she makes a signal with her hand | V |
To beckon some one from the Fairy band | V |
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XXIX | C |
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Anon I saw one of those elfin things | C |
Clad all in white like any chorister | C |
Come fluttering forth on his melodious wings | C |
That made soft music at each little stir | C |
But something louder than a bee's demur | C |
Before he lights upon a bunch of broom | D |
And thus 'gan he with Saturn to confer | C |
And O his voice was sweet touch'd with the gloom | D |
Of that sad theme that argued of his doom | D |
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XXX | C |
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Quoth he We make all melodies our care | C |
That no false discords may offend the Sun | B2 |
Music's great master tuning everywhere | C |
All pastoral sounds and melodies each one | B2 |
Duly to place and season so that none | B2 |
May harshly interfere We rouse at morn | B2 |
The shrill sweet lark and when the day is done | B2 |
Hush silent pauses for the bird forlorn | B2 |
That singeth with her breast against a thorn | B2 |
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XXXI | C |
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We gather in loud choirs the twittering race | C |
That make a chorus with their single note | V |
And tend on new fledged birds in every place | C |
That duly they may get their tunes by rote | V |
And oft like echoes answering remote | V |
We hide in thickets from the feather'd throng | Q |
And strain in rivalship each throbbing throat | V |
Singing in shrill responses all day long | Q |
Whilst the glad truant listens to our song | Q |
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XXXII | C |
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Wherefore great King of Years as thou dost love | K |
The raining music from a morning cloud | V |
When vanish'd larks are carolling above | K |
To wake Apollo with their pipings loud | V |
If ever thou hast heard in leafy shroud | V |
The sweet and plaintive Sappho of the dell | E2 |
Show thy sweet mercy on this little crowd | V |
And we will muffle up the sheepfold bell | E2 |
Whene'er thou listenest to Philomel | E2 |
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XXXIII | C |
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Then Saturn thus Sweet is the merry lark | Q |
That carols in man's ear so clear and strong | Q |
And youth must love to listen in the dark | Q |
That tuneful elegy of Tereus' wrong | Q |
But I have heard that ancient strain too long | Q |
For sweet is sweet but when a little strange | I2 |
And I grow weary for some newer song | Q |
For wherefore had I wings unless to range | I2 |
Through all things mutable from change to change | I2 |
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XXXIV | K |
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But would'st thou hear the melodies of Time | D |
Listen when sleep and drowsy darkness roll | E2 |
Over hush'd cities and the midnight chime | D |
Sounds from their hundred clocks and deep bells toll | E2 |
Like a last knell over the dead world's soul | E2 |
Saying 'Time shall be final of all things | C |
Whose late last voice must elegize the whole ' | - |
O then I clap aloft my brave broad wings | C |
And make the wide air tremble while it rings | C |
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XXXV | K |
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Then next a fair Eve Fay made meek address | C |
Saying We be the handmaids of the Spring | Q |
In sign whereof May the quaint broideress | C |
Hath wrought her samplers on our gauzy wing | Q |
We tend upon buds birth and blossoming | Q |
And count the leafy tributes that they owe | J |
As so much to the earth so much to fling | Q |
In showers to the brook so much to go | J |
In whirlwinds to the clouds that made them grow | J |
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XXXVI | K |
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The pastoral cowslips are our little pets | C |
And daisy stars whose firmament is green | B2 |
Pansies and those veil'd nuns meek violets | C |
Sighing to that warm world from which they screen | B2 |
And golden daffodils pluck'd for May's Queen | B2 |
And lonely harebells quaking on the heath | J2 |
And Hyacinth long since a fair youth seen | B2 |
Whose tuneful voice turn'd fragrance in his breath | C2 |
Kiss'd by sad Zephyr guilty of his death | C2 |
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XXXVII | K |
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The widow'd primrose weeping to the moon | B2 |
And saffron crocus in whose chalice bright | V |
A cool libation hoarded for the noon | B2 |
Is kept and she that purifies the light | V |
The virgin lily faithful to her white | V |
Whereon Eve wept in Eden for her shame | D |
And the most dainty rose Aurora's spright | V |
Our every godchild by whatever name | D |
Spares us our lives for we did nurse the same | D |
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XXXVIII | K |
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Then that old Mower stamp'd his heel and struck | Q |
His hurtful scythe against the harmless ground | V |
Saying Ye foolish imps when am I stuck | Q |
With gaudy buds or like a wooer crown'd | V |
With flow'ry chaplets save when they are found | V |
Withered Whenever have I pluck'd a rose | C |
Except to scatter its vain leaves around | V |
For so all gloss of beauty I oppose | C |
And bring decay on every flow'r that blows | C |
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XXXIX | C |
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Or when am I so wroth as when I view | K |
The wanton pride of Summer how she decks | C |
The birthday world with blossoms ever new | K |
As if Time had not lived and heap'd great wrecks | C |
Of years on years O then I bravely vex | C |
And catch the gay Months in their gaudy plight | V |
And slay them with the wreaths about their necks | C |
Like foolish heifers in the holy rite | V |
And raise great trophies to my ancient might | V |
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XL | E2 |
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Then saith another We are kindly things | C |
And like her offspring nestle with the dove | K |
Witness these hearts embroidered on our wings | C |
To show our constant patronage of love | K |
We sit at even in sweet bow'rs above | K |
Lovers and shake rich odors on the air | C |
To mingle with their sighs and still remove | K |
The startling owl and bid the bat forbear | C |
Their privacy and haunt some other where | C |
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XLI | E2 |
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And we are near the mother when she sits | C |
Beside her infant in its wicker bed | V |
And we are in the fairy scene that flits | C |
Across its tender brain sweet dreams we shed | V |
And whilst the tender little soul is fled | V |
Away to sport with our young elves the while | E2 |
We touch the dimpled cheek with roses red | V |
And tickle the soft lips until they smile | E2 |
So that their careful parents they beguile | E2 |
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XLII | E2 |
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O then if ever thou hast breathed a vow | K |
At Love's dear portal or at pale moon rise | C |
Crush'd the dear curl on a regardful brow | K |
That did not frown thee from thy honey prize | C |
If ever thy sweet son sat on thy thighs | C |
And wooed thee from thy careful thoughts within | B2 |
To watch the harmless beauty of his eyes | C |
Or glad thy fingers on his smooth soft skin | B2 |
For Love's dear sake let us thy pity win | B2 |
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XLIII | E2 |
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Then Saturn fiercely thus What joy have I | K |
In tender babes that have devour'd mine own | B2 |
Whenever to the light I heard them cry | K |
Till foolish Rhea cheated me with stone | B2 |
Whereon till now is my great hunger shown | B2 |
In monstrous dint of my enormous tooth | D2 |
And but the peopled world is too full grown | B2 |
For hunger's edge I would consume all youth | D2 |
At one great meal without delay or ruth | D2 |
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XLIV | K |
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For I am well nigh crazed and wild to hear | C |
How boastful fathers taunt me with their breed | V |
Saying 'We shall not die nor disappear | C |
But in these other selves ourselves succeed | V |
Ev'n as ripe flowers pass into their seed | V |
Only to be renew'd from prime to prime ' | - |
All of which boastings I am forced to read | V |
Besides a thousand challenges to Time | D |
Which bragging lovers have compiled in rhyme | D |
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XLV | K |
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Wherefore when they are sweetly met o' nights | C |
There will I steal and with my hurried hand | V |
Startle them suddenly from their delights | C |
Before the next encounter hath been plann'd | V |
Ravishing hours in little minutes spann'd | V |
But when they say farewell and grieve apart | V |
Then like a leaden statue I will stand | V |
Meanwhile their many tears encrust my dart | V |
And with a ragged edge cut heart from heart | V |
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XLVI | K |
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Then next a merry Woodsman clad in green | B2 |
Step vanward from his mates that idly stood | V |
Each at his proper ease as they had been | B2 |
Nursed in the liberty of old Sh rwood | V |
And wore the livery of Robin Hood | V |
Who wont in forest shades to dine and sup | K2 |
So came this chief right frankly and made good | V |
His haunch against his axe and thus spoke up | K2 |
Doffing his cap which was an acorn's cup | K2 |
- | |
- | |
XLVII | K |
- | |
We be small foresters and gay who tend | V |
On trees and all their furniture of green | B2 |
Training the young boughs airily to bend | V |
And show blue snatches of the sky between | B2 |
Or knit more close intricacies to screen | B2 |
Birds' crafty dwellings as may hide them best | V |
But most the timid blackbird's she that seen | B2 |
Will bear black poisonous berries to her nest | V |
Lest man should cage the darlings of her breast | V |
- | |
- | |
XLVIII | K |
- | |
We bend each tree in proper attitude | V |
And founting willows train in silvery falls | C |
We frame all shady roofs and arches rude | V |
And verdant aisles leading to Dryads' halls | C |
Or deep recesses where the Echo calls | C |
We shape all plumy trees against the sky | K |
And carve tall elms' Corinthian capitals | C |
When sometimes as our tiny hatchets ply | K |
Men say the tapping woodpecker is nigh | K |
- | |
- | |
XLIX | C |
- | |
Sometimes we scoop the squirrel's hollow cell | E2 |
And sometimes carve quaint letters on trees' rind | V |
That haply some lone musing wight may spell | E2 |
Dainty Aminta Gentle Rosalind | V |
Or chastest Laura sweetly call'd to mind | V |
In sylvan solitudes ere he lies down | B2 |
And sometimes we enrich gray stems with twined | V |
And vagrant ivy or rich moss whose brown | B2 |
Burns into gold as the warm sun goes down | B2 |
- | |
- | |
L | E2 |
- | |
And lastly for mirth's sake and Christmas cheer | C |
We bear the seedling berries for increase | C |
To graft the Druid oaks from year to year | C |
Careful that mistletoe may never cease | C |
Wherefore if thou dost prize the shady peace | C |
Of sombre forests or to see light break | Q |
Through sylvan cloisters and in spring release | C |
Thy spirit amongst leaves from careful ake | Q |
Spare us our lives for the Green Dryad's sake | Q |
- | |
- | |
LI | E2 |
- | |
Then Saturn with a frown Go forth and fell | E2 |
Oak for your coffins and thenceforth lay by | K |
Your axes for the rust and bid farewell | E2 |
To all sweet birds and the blue peeps of sky | K |
Through tangled branches for ye shall not spy | K |
The next green generation of the tree | E2 |
But hence with the dead leaves whene'e they fly | K |
Which in the bleak air I would rather see | E2 |
Than flights of the most tuneful birds that be | E2 |
- | |
- | |
LII | K |
- | |
For I dislike all prime and verdant pets | C |
Ivy except that on the aged wall | K |
Prays with its worm like roots and daily frets | C |
The crumbled tower it seems to league withal | K |
King like worn down by its own coronal | K |
Neither in forest haunts love I to won | B2 |
Before the golden plumage 'gins to fall | K |
And leaves the brown bleak limbs with few leaves on | B2 |
Or bare like Nature in her skeleton | B2 |
- | |
- | |
LIII | K |
- | |
For then sit I amongst the crooked boughs | C |
Wooing dull Memory with kindred sighs | C |
And there in rustling nuptials we espouse | C |
Smit by the sadness in each other's eyes | C |
But Hope must have green bowers and blue skies | C |
And must be courted with the gauds of Spring | Q |
Whilst Youth leans god like on her lap and cries | C |
'What shall we always do but love and sing ' | - |
And Time is reckon'd a discarded thing | Q |
- | |
- | |
LIV | K |
- | |
Here in my dream it made me fret to see | E2 |
How Puck the antic all this dreary while | K |
Had blithely jested with calamity | E2 |
With mis timed mirth mocking the doleful style | K |
Of his sad comrades till it raised my bile | K |
To see him so reflect their grief aside | V |
Turning their solemn looks to have a smile | K |
Like a straight stick shown crooked in the tide | V |
But soon a novel advocate I spied | V |
- | |
- | |
LV | K |
- | |
Quoth he We teach all natures to fulfil | K |
Their fore appointed crafts and instincts meet | V |
The bee's sweet alchemy the spider's skill | K |
The pismire's care to garner up his wheat | V |
And rustic masonry to swallows fleet | V |
The lapwing's cunning to preserve her nest | V |
But most that lesser pelican the sweet | V |
And shrilly ruddock with its bleeding breast | V |
Its tender pity of poor babes distrest | V |
- | |
- | |
LVI | K |
- | |
Sometimes we cast our shapes and in sleek skins | C |
Delve with the timid mole that aptly delves | C |
From our example so the spider spins | C |
And eke the silk worm pattern'd by ourselves | C |
Sometimes we travail on the summer shelves | C |
Of early bees and busy toils commence | C |
Watch'd of wise men that know not we are elves | C |
But gaze and marvel at our stretch of sense | C |
And praise our human like intelligence | C |
- | |
- | |
LVII | K |
- | |
Wherefore by thy delight in that old tale | K |
And plaintive dirges the late robins sing | Q |
What time the leaves are scatter'd by the gale | K |
Mindful of that old forest burying | Q |
As thou dost love to watch each tiny thing | Q |
For whom our craft most curiously contrives | C |
If thou hast caught a bee upon the wing | Q |
To take his honey bag spare us our lives | C |
And we will pay the ransom in full hives | C |
- | |
- | |
LVIII | K |
- | |
Now by my glass quoth Time ye do offend | V |
In teaching the brown bees that careful lore | C |
And frugal ants whose millions would have end | V |
But they lay up for need a timely store | C |
And travail with the seasons evermore | C |
Whereas Great Mammoth long hath pass'd away | E |
And none but I can tell what hide he wore | C |
Whilst purblind men the creatures of a day | E |
In riddling wonder his great bones survey | E |
- | |
- | |
LIX | C |
- | |
Then came an elf right beauteous to behold | V |
Whose coat was like a brooklet that the sun | B2 |
Hath all embroider'd with its crooked gold | V |
It was so quaintly wrought and overrun | B2 |
With spangled traceries most meet for one | B2 |
That was a warden of the pearly streams | C |
And as he stept out of the shadows dun | B2 |
His jewels sparkled in the pale moon's gleams | C |
And shot into the air their pointed beams | C |
- | |
- | |
LX | C |
- | |
Quoth he We bear the gold and silver keys | C |
Of bubbling springs and fountains that below | K |
Course thro' the veiny earth which when they freeze | C |
Into hard crysolites we bid to flow | K |
Creeping like subtle snakes when as they go | K |
We guide their windings to melodious falls | C |
At whose soft murmurings so sweet and low | K |
Poets have tuned their smoothest madrigals | C |
To sing to ladies in their banquet halls | C |
- | |
- | |
LXI | C |
- | |
And when the hot sun with his steadfast heat | V |
Parches the river god whose dusty urn | B2 |
Drips miserly till soon his crystal feet | V |
Against his pebbly floor wax faint and burn | B2 |
And languid fish unpoised grow sick and yearn | B2 |
Then scoop we hollows in some sandy nook | Q |
And little channels dig wherein we turn | B2 |
The thread worn rivulet that all forsook | Q |
The Naiad lily pining for her brook | Q |
- | |
- | |
LXII | C |
- | |
Wherefore by thy delight in cool green meads | C |
With living sapphires daintily inlaid | V |
In all soft songs of waters and their reeds | C |
And all reflections in a streamlet made | V |
Haply of thy own love that disarray'd | V |
Kills the fair lily with a livelier white | V |
By silver trouts upspringing from green shade | V |
And winking stars reduplicate at night | V |
Spare us poor ministers to such delight | V |
- | |
- | |
LXIII | C |
- | |
Howbeit his pleading and his gentle looks | C |
Moved not the spiteful Shade Quoth he Your taste | V |
Shoots wide of mine for I despise the brooks | C |
And slavish rivulets that run to waste | V |
In noontide sweats or like poor vassals haste | V |
To swell the vast dominion of the sea | C |
In whose great presence I am held disgraced | V |
And neighbor'd with a king that rivals me | C |
In ancient might and hoary majesty | C |
- | |
- | |
LXIV | E |
- | |
Whereas I ruled in Chaos and still keep | X |
The awful secrets of that ancient dearth | L2 |
Before the briny fountains of the deep | X |
Brimm'd up the hollow cavities of earth | L2 |
I saw each trickling Sea God at his birth | L2 |
Each pearly Naiad with her oozy locks | C |
And infant Titans of enormous girth | L2 |
Whose huge young feet yet stumbled on the rocks | C |
Stunning the early world with frequent shocks | C |
- | |
- | |
LXV | E |
- | |
Where now is Titan with his cumbrous brood | V |
That scared the world By this sharp scythe they fell | K |
And half the sky was curdled with their blood | V |
So have all primal giants sigh'd farewell | K |
No wardens now by sedgy fountains dwell | K |
Nor pearly Naiads All their days are done | B2 |
That strove with Time untimely to excel | K |
Wherefore I razed their progenies and none | B2 |
But my great shadow intercepts the sun | B2 |
- | |
- | |
LXVI | E |
- | |
Then saith the timid Fay Oh mighty Time | D |
Well hast thou wrought the cruel Titans' fall | K |
For they were stain'd with many a bloody crime | D |
Great giants work great wrongs but we are small | K |
For love goes lowly but Oppression's tall | K |
And with surpassing strides goes foremost still | K |
Where love indeed can hardly reach at all | K |
Like a poor dwarf o'erburthen'd with good will | K |
That labors to efface the tracks of ill | K |
- | |
- | |
LXVII | E |
- | |
Man even strives with Man but we eschew | K |
The guilty feud and all fierce strifes abhor | C |
Nay we are gentle as the sweet heaven's dew | K |
Beside the red and horrid drops of war | C |
Weeping the cruel hates men battle for | C |
Which worldly bosoms nourish in our spite | V |
For in the gentle breast we ne'er withdraw | C |
But only when all love hath taken flight | V |
And youth's warm gracious heart is hardened quite | V |
- | |
- | |
LXVIII | E |
- | |
So are our gentle natures intertwined | V |
With sweet humanities and closely knit | V |
In kindly sympathy with human kind | V |
Witness how we befriend with elfin wit | V |
All hopeless maids and lovers nor omit | V |
Magical succors unto hearts forlorn | B2 |
We charm man's life and do not perish it | V |
So judge us by the helps we showed this morn | B2 |
To one who held his wretched days in scorn | B2 |
- | |
- | |
LXIX | C |
- | |
'Twas nigh sweet Amwell for the Queen had task'd | V |
Our skill to day amidst the silver Lea | C |
Whereon the noontide sun had not yet bask'd | V |
Wherefore some patient man we thought to see | C |
Planted in moss grown rushes to the knee | C |
Beside the cloudy margin cold and dim | D |
Howbeit no patient fisherman was he | C |
That cast his sudden shadow from the brim | D |
Making us leave our toils to gaze on him | D |
- | |
- | |
LXX | C |
- | |
His face was ashy pale and leaden care | C |
Had sunk the levell'd arches of his brow | K |
Once bridges for his joyous thoughts to fare | C |
Over those melancholy springs and slow | K |
That from his piteous eyes began to flow | K |
And fell anon into the chilly stream | D |
Which as his mimick'd image show'd below | K |
Wrinkled his face with many a needless seam | D |
Making grief sadder in its own esteem | D |
- | |
- | |
LXXI | C |
- | |
And lo upon the air we saw him stretch | M2 |
His passionate arms and in a wayward strain | B2 |
He 'gan to elegize that fellow wretch | M2 |
That with mute gestures answer'd him again | B2 |
Saying 'Poor slave how long wilt thou remain | B2 |
Life's sad weak captive in a prison strong | Q |
Hoping with tears to rust away thy chain | B2 |
In bitter servitude to worldly wrong | Q |
Thou wear'st that mortal livery too long ' | - |
- | |
- | |
LXXII | C |
- | |
This with more spleenful speeches and some tears | C |
When he had spent upon the imaged wave | E |
Speedily I convened my elfin peers | C |
Under the lily cups that we might save | E |
This woeful mortal from a wilful grave | E |
By shrewd diversions of his mind's regret | V |
Seeing he was mere Melancholy's slave | E |
That sank wherever a dark cloud he met | V |
And straight was tangled in her secret net | V |
- | |
- | |
LXXIII | C |
- | |
Therefore as still he watch'd the water's flow | K |
Daintily we transform'd and with bright fins | C |
Came glancing through the gloom some from below | K |
Rose like dim fancies when a dream begins | C |
Snatching the light upon their purple skins | C |
Then under the broad leaves made slow retire | C |
One like a golden galley bravely wins | C |
Its radiant course another glows like fire | C |
Making that wayward man our pranks admire | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXIV | E |
- | |
And so he banish'd thought and quite forgot | V |
All contemplation of that wretched face | C |
And so we wiled him from that lonely spot | V |
Along the river's brink till by heaven's grace | C |
He met a gentle haunter of the place | C |
Full of sweet wisdom gather'd from the brooks | C |
Who there discuss'd his melancholy case | C |
With wholesome texts learned from kind nature's books | C |
Meanwhile he newly trimm'd his lines and hooks | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXV | E |
- | |
Herewith the Fairy ceased Quoth Ariel now | K |
Let me remember how I saved a man | B2 |
Whose fatal noose was fastened on a bough | K |
Intended to abridge his sad life's span | B2 |
For haply I was by when he began | B2 |
His stern soliloquy in life dispraise | C |
And overheard his melancholy plan | B2 |
How he had made a vow to end his days | C |
And therefore follow'd him in all his ways | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXVI | E |
- | |
Through brake and tangled copse for much he loathed | V |
All populous haunts and roam'd in forests rude | V |
To hide himself from man But I had clothed | V |
My delicate limbs with plumes and still pursued | V |
Where only foxes and wild cats intrude | V |
Till we were come beside an ancient tree | C |
Late blasted by a storm Here he renew'd | V |
His loud complaints choosing that spot to be | C |
The scene of his last horrid tragedy | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXVII | E |
- | |
It was a wild and melancholy glen | B2 |
Made gloomy by tall firs and cypress dark | Q |
Whose roots like any bones of buried men | B2 |
Push'd through the rotten sod for fear's remark | Q |
A hundred horrid stems jagged and stark | Q |
Wrestled with crooked arms in hideous fray | E |
Besides sleek ashes with their dappled bark | Q |
Like crafty serpents climbing for a prey | E |
With many blasted oaks moss grown and gray | E |
- | |
- | |
LXXVIII | E |
- | |
But here upon his final desperate clause | C |
Suddenly I pronounced so sweet a strain | B2 |
Like a pang'd nightingale it made him pause | C |
Till half the frenzy of his grief was slain | B2 |
The sad remainder oozing from his brain | B2 |
In timely ecstasies of healing tears | C |
Which through his ardent eyes began to drain | B2 |
Meanwhile the deadly Fates unclosed their shears | C |
So pity me and all my fated peers | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXIX | C |
- | |
Thus Ariel ended and was some time hush'd | V |
When with the hoary shape a fresh tongue pleads | C |
And red as rose the gentle Fairy blush'd | V |
To read the records of her own good deeds | C |
It chanced quoth she in seeking through the meads | C |
For honied cowslips sweetest in the morn | B2 |
Whilst yet the buds were hung with dewy beads | C |
And Echo answered to the huntsman's horn | B2 |
We found a babe left in the swaths forlorn | B2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXX | C |
- | |
A little sorrowful deserted thing | Q |
Begot of love and yet no love begetting | Q |
Guiltless of shame and yet for shame to wring | Q |
And too soon banish'd from a mother's petting | Q |
To churlish nurture and the wide world's fretting | Q |
For alien pity and unnatural care | C |
Alas to see how the cold dew kept wetting | Q |
His childish coats and dabbled all his hair | C |
Like gossamers across his forehead fair | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXXI | C |
- | |
His pretty pouting mouth witless of speech | M2 |
Lay half way open like a rose lipp'd shell | K |
And his young cheek was softer than a peach | M2 |
Whereon his tears for roundness could not dwell | K |
But quickly roll'd themselves to pearls and fell | K |
Some on the grass and some against his hand | V |
Or haply wander'd to the dimpled well | K |
Which love beside his mouth had sweetly plann'd | V |
Yet not for tears but mirth and smilings bland | V |
- | |
- | |
LXXXII | C |
- | |
Pity it was to see those frequent tears | C |
Falling regardless from his friendless eyes | C |
There was such beauty in those twin blue spheres | C |
As any mother's heart might leap to prize | C |
Blue were they like the zenith of the skies | C |
Softened betwixt two clouds both clear and mild | V |
Just touched with thought and yet not over wise | C |
They show'd the gentle spirit of a child | V |
Not yet by care or any craft defiled | V |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIII | C |
- | |
Pity it was to see the ardent sun | B2 |
Scorching his helpless limbs it shone so warm | D |
For kindly shade or shelter he had none | B2 |
Nor mother's gentle breast come fair or storm | D |
Meanwhile I bade my pitying mates transform | D |
Like grasshoppers and then with shrilly cries | C |
All round the infant noisily we swarm | D |
Haply some passing rustic to advise | C |
Whilst providential Heaven our care espies | C |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIV | E |
- | |
And sends full soon a tender hearted hind | V |
Who wond'ring at our loud unusual note | V |
Strays curiously aside and so doth find | V |
The orphan child laid in the grass remote | V |
And laps the foundling in his russet coat | V |
Who thence was nurtured in his kindly cot | V |
But how he prosper'd let proud London quote | V |
How wise how rich and how renown'd he got | V |
And chief of all her citizens I wot | V |
- | |
- | |
LXXXV | E |
- | |
Witness his goodly vessels on the Thames | C |
Whose holds were fraught with costly merchandise | C |
Jewels from Ind and pearls for courtly dames | C |
And gorgeous silks that Samarcand supplies | C |
Witness that Royal Bourse he bade arise | C |
The mart of merchants from the East and West | V |
Whose slender summit pointing to the skies | C |
Still bears in token of his grateful breast | V |
The tender grasshopper his chosen crest | V |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVI | E |
- | |
The tender grasshopper his chosen crest | V |
That all the summer with a tuneful wing | Q |
Makes merry chirpings in its grassy nest | V |
Inspirited with dew to leap and sing | Q |
So let us also live eternal King | Q |
Partakers of the green and pleasant earth | L2 |
Pity it is to slay the meanest thing | Q |
That like a mote shines in the smile of mirth | L2 |
Enough there is of joy's decrease and dearth | L2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVII | E |
- | |
Enough of pleasure and delight and beauty | V |
Perish'd and gone and hasting to decay | E |
Enough to sadden even thee whose duty | V |
Or spite it is to havoc and to slay | E |
Too many a lovely race razed quite away | E |
Hath left large gaps in life and human loving | Q |
Here then begin thy cruel war to stay | E |
And spare fresh sighs and tears and groans reproving | Q |
Thy desolating hand for our removing | Q |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVIII | E |
- | |
Now here I heard a shrill and sudden cry | K |
And looking up I saw the antic Puck | Q |
Grappling with Time who clutch'd him like a fly | K |
Victim of his own sport the jester's luck | Q |
He whilst his fellows grieved poor wight had stuck | Q |
His freakish gauds upon the Ancient's brow | K |
And now his ear and now his beard would pluck | Q |
Whereas the angry churl had snatched him now | K |
Crying Thou impish mischief who art thou | K |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIX | C |
- | |
Alas quoth Puck a little random elf | E |
Born in the sport of nature like a weed | V |
For simple sweet enjoyment of myself | E |
But for no other purpose worth or need | V |
And yet withal of a most happy breed | V |
And there is Robin Goodfellow besides | C |
My partner dear in many a prankish deed | V |
To make dame Laughter hold her jolly sides | C |
Like merry mummers twain on holy tides | C |
- | |
- | |
XC | Q |
- | |
'Tis we that bob the angler's idle cork | Q |
Till e'en the patient man breathes half a curse | C |
We steal the morsel from the gossip's fork | Q |
And curdling looks with secret straws disperse | C |
Or stop the sneezing chanter at mid verse | C |
And when an infant's beauty prospers ill | K |
We change some mothers say the child at nurse | C |
But any graver purpose to fulfil | K |
We have not wit enough and scarce the will | K |
- | |
- | |
XCI | C |
- | |
We never let the canker melancholy | K |
To gather on our faces like a rust | V |
But glass our features with some change of folly | K |
Taking life's fabled miseries on trust | V |
But only sorrowing when sorrow must | V |
We ruminate no sage's solemn cud | V |
But own ourselves a pinch of lively dust | V |
To frisk upon a wind whereas the flood | V |
Of tears would turn us into heavy mud | V |
- | |
- | |
XCII | C |
- | |
Beshrew those sad interpreters of nature | C |
Who gloze her lively universal law | K |
As if she had not form'd our cheerful feature | C |
To be so tickled with the slightest straw | K |
So let them vex their mumbling mouths and draw | K |
The corners downward like a wat'ry moon | B2 |
And deal in gusty sighs and rainy flaw | K |
We will not woo foul weather all too soon | B2 |
Or nurse November on the lap of June | B2 |
- | |
- | |
XCIII | C |
- | |
For ours are winging sprites like any bird | V |
That shun all stagnant settlements of grief | E |
And even in our rest our hearts are stirr'd | V |
Like insects settled on a dancing leaf | E |
This is our small philosophy in brief | E |
Which thus to teach hath set me all agape | N2 |
But dost thou relish it O hoary chief | E |
Unclasp thy crooked fingers from my nape | N2 |
And I will show thee many a pleasant scrape | N2 |
- | |
- | |
XCIV | E |
- | |
Then Saturn thus shaking his crooked blade | V |
O'erhead which made aloft a lightning flash | M2 |
In all the fairies' eyes dismally fray'd | V |
His ensuing voice came like the thunder crash | M2 |
Meanwhile the bolt shatters some pine or ash | M2 |
Thou feeble wanton foolish fickle thing | Q |
Whom nought can frighten sadden or abash | M2 |
To hope my solemn countenance to wring | Q |
To idiot smiles but I will prune thy wing | Q |
- | |
- | |
XCV | E |
- | |
Lo this most awful handle of my scythe | O2 |
Stood once a May pole with a flowery crown | B2 |
Which rustics danced around and maidens blithe | P2 |
To wanton pipings but I pluck'd it down | B2 |
And robed the May Queen in a churchyard gown | B2 |
Turning her buds to rosemary and rue | K |
And all their merry minstrelsy did drown | B2 |
And laid each lusty leaper in the dew | K |
So thou shalt fare and every jovial crew | K |
- | |
- | |
XCVI | E |
- | |
Here he lets go the struggling imp to clutch | M2 |
His mortal engine with each grisly hand | V |
Which frights the elfin progeny so much | M2 |
They huddle in a heap and trembling stand | V |
All round Titania like the queen bee's band | V |
With sighs and tears and very shrieks of woe | K |
Meanwhile some moving argument I plann'd | V |
To make the stern Shade merciful when lo | K |
He drops his fatal scythe without a blow | K |
- | |
- | |
XCVII | E |
- | |
For just at need a timely Apparition | B2 |
Steps in between to bear the awful brunt | V |
Making him change his horrible position | B2 |
To marvel at this comer brave and blunt | V |
That dares Time's irresistible affront | V |
Whose strokes have scarr'd even the gods of old | V |
Whereas this seem'd a mortal at mere hunt | V |
For coneys lighted by the moonshine cold | V |
Or stalker of stray deer stealthy and bold | V |
- | |
- | |
XCVIII | E |
- | |
Who turning to the small assembled fays | C |
Doffs to the lily queen his courteous cap | N2 |
And holds her beauty for a while in gaze | C |
With bright eyes kindling at this pleasant hap | N2 |
And thence upon the fair moon's silver map | N2 |
As if in question of this magic chance | C |
Laid like a dream upon the green earth's lap | N2 |
And then upon old Saturn turns askance | C |
Exclaiming with a glad and kindly glance | C |
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XCIX | C |
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Oh these be Fancy's revelers by night | V |
Stealthy companions of the downy moth | Q2 |
Diana's motes that flit in her pale light | V |
Shunners of sunbeams in diurnal sloth | R2 |
These be the feasters on night's silver cloth | Q2 |
The gnat with shrilly trump is their convener | K |
Forth from their flowery chambers nothing loth | S2 |
With lulling tunes to charm the air serener | K |
Or dance upon the grass to make it greener | K |
- | |
- | |
C | K |
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These be the pretty genii of the flow'rs | C |
Daintily fed with honey and pure dew | K |
Midsummer's phantoms in her dreaming hours | C |
King Oberon and all his merry crew | K |
The darling puppets of romance's view | K |
Fairies and sprites and goblin elves we call them | D |
Famous for patronage of lovers true | K |
No harm they act neither shall harm befall them | D |
So do not thus with crabbed frowns appal them | D |
- | |
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CI | C |
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O what a cry was Saturn's then it made | V |
The fairies quake What care I for their pranks | C |
However they may lovers choose to aid | V |
Or dance their roundelays on flow'ry banks | C |
Long must they dance before they earn my thanks | C |
So step aside to some far safer spot | V |
Whilst with my hungry scythe I mow their ranks | C |
And leave them in the sun like weeds to rot | V |
And with the next day's sun to be forgot | V |
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CII | C |
- | |
Anon he raised afresh his weapon keen | B2 |
But still the gracious Shade disarm'd his aim | D |
Stepping with brave alacrity between | B2 |
And made his sore arm powerless and tame | D |
His be perpetual glory for the shame | D |
Of hoary Saturn in that grand defeat | V |
But I must tell how here Titania came | D |
With all her kneeling lieges to entreat | V |
His kindly succor in sad tones but sweet | V |
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CIII | C |
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Saying Thou seest a wretched queen before thee | K |
The fading power of a failing land | V |
Who for a kingdom kneeleth to implore thee | K |
Now menaced by this tyrant's spoiling hand | V |
No one but thee can hopefully withstand | V |
That crooked blade he longeth so to lift | V |
I pray thee blind him with his own vile sand | V |
Which only times all ruins by its drift | V |
Or prune his eagle wings that are so swift | V |
- | |
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CIV | K |
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Or take him by that sole and grizzled tuft | V |
That hangs upon his bald and barren crown | B2 |
And we will sing to see him so rebuff'd | V |
And lend our little mights to pull him down | B2 |
And make brave sport of his malicious frown | B2 |
For all his boastful mockery o'er men | B2 |
For thou wast born I know for this renown | B2 |
By my most magical and inward ken | B2 |
That readeth ev'n at Fate's forestalling pen | B2 |
- | |
- | |
CV | K |
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Nay by the golden lustre of thine eye | K |
And by thy brow's most fair and ample span | B2 |
Thought's glorious palace framed for fancies high | K |
And by thy cheek thus passionately wan | B2 |
I know the signs of an immortal man | B2 |
Nature's chief darling and illustrious mate | V |
Destined to foil old Death's oblivious plan | B2 |
And shine untarnish'd by the fogs of Fate | V |
Time's famous rival till the final date | V |
- | |
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CVI | K |
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O shield us then from this usurping Time | D |
And we will visit thee in moonlight dreams | C |
And teach thee tunes to wed unto thy rhyme | D |
And dance about thee in all midnight gleams | C |
Giving thee glimpses of our magic schemes | C |
Such as no mortal's eye hath ever seen | B2 |
And for thy love to us in our extremes | C |
Will ever keep thy chaplet fresh and green | B2 |
Such as no poet's wreath hath ever been | B2 |
- | |
- | |
CVII | K |
- | |
And we'll distil thee aromatic dews | C |
To charm thy sense when there shall be no flow'rs | C |
And flavor'd syrups in thy drinks infuse | C |
And teach the nightingale to haunt thy bow'rs | C |
And with our games divert thy weariest hours | C |
With all that elfin wits can e'er devise | C |
And this churl dead there'll be no hasting hours | C |
To rob thee of thy joys as now joy flies | C |
Here she was stopp'd by Saturn's furious cries | C |
- | |
- | |
CVIII | K |
- | |
Whom therefore the kind Shade rebukes anew | K |
Saying Thou haggard Sin go forth and scoop | N2 |
Thy hollow coffin in some churchyard yew | K |
Or make th' autumnal flow'rs turn pale and droop | N2 |
Or fell the bearded corn till gleaners stoop | N2 |
Under fat sheaves or blast the piny grove | K |
But here thou shall not harm this pretty group | N2 |
Whose lives are not so frail and feebly wove | K |
But leased on Nature's loveliness and love | K |
- | |
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CIX | C |
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'Tis these that free the small entangled fly | K |
Caught in the venom'd spider's crafty snare | K |
These be the petty surgeons that apply | K |
The healing balsams to the wounded hare | K |
Bedded in bloody fern no creature's care | K |
These be providers for the orphan brood | V |
Whose tender mother hath been slain in air | K |
Quitting with gaping bill her darling's food | V |
Hard by the verge of her domestic wood | V |
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CX | C |
- | |
'Tis these befriend the timid trembling stag | Q |
When with a bursting heart beset with fears | C |
He feels his saving speed begin to flag | Q |
For then they quench the fatal taint with tears | C |
And prompt fresh shifts in his alarum'd ears | C |
So piteously they view all bloody morts | C |
Or if the gunner with his arms appears | C |
Like noisy pyes and jays with harsh reports | C |
They warn the wild fowl of his deadly sports | C |
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CXI | C |
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For these are kindly ministers of nature | K |
To soothe all covert hurts and dumb distress | C |
Pretty they be and very small of stature | K |
For mercy still consorts with littleness | C |
Wherefore the sum of good is still the less | C |
And mischief grossest in this world of wrong | Q |
So do these charitable dwarfs redress | C |
The tenfold ravages of giants strong | Q |
To whom great malice and great might belong | Q |
- | |
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CXII | C |
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Likewise to them are Poets much beholden | B2 |
For secret favors in the midnight glooms | C |
Brave Spenser quaff'd out of their goblets golden | B2 |
And saw their tables spread of prompt mushrooms | C |
And heard their horns of honeysuckle blooms | C |
Sounding upon the air most soothing soft | V |
Like humming bees busy about the brooms | C |
And glanced this fair queen's witchery full oft | V |
And in her magic wain soar'd far aloft | V |
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CXIII | C |
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Nay I myself though mortal once was nursed | V |
By fairy gossips friendly at my birth | L2 |
And in my childish ear glib Mab rehearsed | V |
Her breezy travels round our planet's girth | L2 |
Telling me wonders of the moon and earth | L2 |
My gramarye at her grave lap I conn'd | V |
Where Puck hath been convened to make me mirth | L2 |
I have had from Queen Titania tokens fond | V |
And toy'd with Oberon's permitted wand | V |
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CXIV | K |
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With figs and plums and Persian dates they fed me | K |
And delicate cates after my sunset meal | K |
And took me by my childish hand and led me | K |
By craggy rocks crested with keeps of steel | K |
Whose awful bases deep dark woods conceal | K |
Staining some dead lake with their verdant dyes | C |
And when the West sparkled at Phoebus' wheel | K |
With fairy euphrasy they purged mine eyes | C |
To let me see their cities in the skies | C |
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CXV | K |
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'Twas they first school'd my young imagination | B2 |
To take its flights like any new fledged bird | V |
And show'd the span of winged meditation | B2 |
Stretch'd wider than things grossly seen or heard | V |
With sweet swift Ariel how I soar'd and stirr'd | V |
The fragrant blooms of spiritual bow'rs | C |
'Twas they endear'd what I have still preferr'd | V |
Nature's blest attributes and balmy pow'rs | C |
Her hills and vales and brooks sweet birds and flow'rs | C |
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CXVI | K |
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Wherefore with all true loyalty and duty | K |
Will I regard them in my honoring rhyme | D |
With love for love and homages to beauty | K |
And magic thoughts gather'd in night's cool clime | D |
With studious verse trancing the dragon Time | D |
Strong as old Merlin's necromantic spells | C |
So these dear monarchs of the summer's prime | D |
Shall live unstartled by his dreadful yells | C |
Till shrill larks warn them to their flowery cells | C |
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CXVII | K |
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Look how a poison'd man turns livid black | Q |
Drugg'd with a cup of deadly hellebore | K |
That sets his horrid features all at rack | Q |
So seem'd these words into the ear to pour | K |
Of ghastly Saturn answering with a roar | K |
Of mortal pain and spite and utmost rage | T2 |
Wherewith his grisly arm he raised once more | K |
And bade the cluster'd sinews all engage | T2 |
As if at one fell stroke to wreck an age | T2 |
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CXVIII | K |
- | |
Whereas the blade flash'd on the dinted ground | V |
Down through his steadfast foe yet made no scar | K |
On that immortal Shade or death like wound | V |
But Time was long benumb'd and stood ajar | K |
And then with baffled rage took flight afar | K |
To weep his hurt in some Cimmerian gloom | D |
Or meaner fames like mine to mock and mar | K |
Or sharp his scythe for royal strokes of doom | D |
Whetting its edge on some old C sar's tomb | D |
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CXIX | C |
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Howbeit he vanish'd in the forest shade | V |
Distantly heard as if some grumbling pard | V |
And like Nymph Echo to a sound decay'd | V |
Meanwhile the fays cluster'd the gracious Bard | V |
The darling centre of their dear regard | V |
Besides of sundry dances on the green | B2 |
Never was mortal man so brightly starr'd | V |
Or won such pretty homages I ween | B2 |
Nod to him Elves cries the melodious queen | B2 |
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CXX | C |
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Nod to him Elves and flutter round about him | D |
And quite enclose him with your pretty crowd | V |
And touch him lovingly for that without him | D |
The silkworm now had spun our dreary shroud | V |
But he hath all dispersed Death's tearful cloud | V |
And Time's dread effigy scared quite away | E |
Bow to him then as though to me ye bow'd | V |
And his dear wishes prosper and obey | E |
Wherever love and wit can find a way | E |
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CXXI | C |
- | |
'Noint him with fairy dews of magic savors | C |
Shaken from orient buds still pearly wet | V |
Roses and spicy pinks and of all favors | C |
Plant in his walks the purple violet | V |
And meadow sweet under the hedges set | V |
To mingle breaths with dainty eglantine | B2 |
And honeysuckles sweet nor yet forget | V |
Some pastoral flowery chaplets to entwine | B2 |
To vie the thoughts about his brow benign | B2 |
- | |
- | |
CXXII | C |
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Let no wild things astonish him or fear him | D |
But tell them all how mild he is of heart | V |
Till e'en the timid hares go frankly near him | D |
And eke the dappled does yet never start | V |
Nor shall their fawns into the thickets dart | V |
Nor wrens forsake their nests among the leaves | C |
Nor speckled thrushes flutter far apart | V |
But bid the sacred swallow haunt his eaves | C |
To guard his roof from lightning and from thieves | C |
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- | |
CXXIII | C |
- | |
Or when he goes the nimble squirrel's visitor | K |
Let the brown hermit bring his hoarded nuts | C |
For tell him this is Nature's kind Inquisitor | K |
Though man keeps cautious doors that conscience shuts | C |
For conscious wrong all curious quest rebuts | C |
Nor yet shall bees uncase their jealous stings | C |
However he may watch their straw built huts | C |
So let him learn the crafts of all small things | C |
Which he will hint most aptly when he sings | C |
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CXXIV | K |
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Here she leaves off and with a graceful hand | V |
Waves thrice three splendid circles round his head | V |
Which though deserted by the radiant wand | V |
Wears still the glory which her waving shed | V |
Such as erst crown'd the old Apostle's head | V |
To show the thoughts there harbor'd were divine | B2 |
And on immortal contemplations fed | V |
Goodly it was to see that glory shine | B2 |
Around a brow so lofty and benign | B2 |
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CXXV | K |
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Goodly it was to see the elfin brood | V |
Contend for kisses of his gentle hand | V |
That had their mortal enemy withstood | V |
And stay'd their lives fast ebbing with the sand | V |
Long while this strife engaged the pretty band | V |
But now bold Chanticleer from farm to farm | D |
Challenged the dawn creeping o'er eastern land | V |
And well the fairies knew that shrill alarm | D |
Which sounds the knell of every elfish charm | D |
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CXXVI | K |
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And soon the rolling mist that 'gan arise | C |
From plashy mead and undiscover'd stream | D |
Earth's morning incense to the early skies | C |
Crept o'er the failing landscape of my dream | D |
Soon faded then the Phantom of my theme | D |
A shapeless shade that fancy disavowed | V |
And shrank to nothing in the mist extreme | D |
Then flew Titania and her little crowd | V |
Like flocking linnets vanished in a cloud | V |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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